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HOMER'S BATRACHOMYOMACHIA, 

HYMNS AND EPIGKAMS. 

HESIOUS WORKS AND DAYS. 
MUSJSUS' HERO AND LEANDER. 
JUVENAL'S FIFTH SATIRE. 

TRANSLATED 

BY GEORGE CHAPMAN. 

WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES, 

BY RICHARD HOOPER, M.A., F.S.A. 





LONDON: 

JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 

SOHO SQUARE. 

1858. 



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TO 

SAMUEL WELLER SINGER, ESQ. F.S.A. 

THROUGH WHOSE LABOURS 

THE EDITOR WAS INTRODUCED 

TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF 

GEORGE CHAPMAN AND HIS AVORKS, 
THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED. 




::•". ;_T'.r:: y 




ia. T in*- 



viii I XT ROD UCTION. 

Translation of Homer, published by George Chapman 
in the reigns of Q. Elizabeth and K. James, is one of 
the greatest treasures the English language has to boast," 
I confess I was inclined to demur; but when I attentively 
read it, and marked the spirit, the roughness and sim- 
plicity, the singular sweetness of the epithets, the 
richness of the language in many of the lines, the grand- 
eur of many of the scenes, and when I compared these 
with Pope, Cowper, and Sotheby, and with the new 
translation by Professor F. W. Xewinan (whose metre, 
by the bye, however adapted for short passages, sadly 
wearies in a long perusal*), I could not but be impressed 
with the superiority of Chapman, and not only with 
his work as a representation of the Homeric mind, but 
as a most valuable contribution to our English poetry. 

I am sometimes inclined to think that his readers are 
not apt to realize (to use a modern term) the metre of 
his Iliads, that it is in truth simply our common ballad- 
metre. I am quite conscious that he has not a com- 
plete mastery over it — such, for instance, as Arthur 
G-olding has in his " Ovid's Metamorphoses" — but still 
if we would read his long lines throughout as two — thus : 

John Gilpin was a citizen, of credit and renown : 

A trained-band Captain eke was he, of famous London town ; 

the measure would soon accustom itself to our ear, and 
we should see, with Lamb, that it is " capable of all 
sweetness and grandeur," and that " Chapman gallops off 
with you his own free pace, &c." That Chapman re- 
quires study, I consider one of his merits. So do all our 
old writers. It is this study that makes them 

* Mr. Newman's version may be accurate and valuable, but 
we can hardly call it poetical. 



INTRODUCTION, ix 

valuable, that instils into us their nerve and vigour, that 
enables us to draw from them freshness and health in 
ideas and language. But it must not be supposed that 
I wish to offer an apology or defence for good old George. 
He is perfectly able to defend himself; and the reader 
must beware lest (as hearty Christopher Xorth warns 
him) he rouse the ghost of Master Chapman, who will 
assuredly call him •'•' a certain envious windsucker, that 
hovers up and down, laboriously engrossing all the air 
with his luxurious ambition, and buzzing into every ear 
my detraction" — and again, •• a castrill with too hot a 
liver, and lust after his own glory, and, to devour all 
himself, discouraging all appetites to the fame of an- 
other/'* But as I have spoken so much on this sub- 
ject in the " Introductions" to the Iliad and Odyssey, it 
is time to return to the present volume. 

It is a bibliographical curiosity, inasmuch as all the 
pieces in it are of more or less rarity. Chapman seems 
to have been determined to translate every possible, or 
probable, portion of Homer. Hence, having finished 
the Iliad and Odyssey, he published " The Croivne of 
all Homers Wbrlces, Batrachomyomachia ; or the 
Battaile of Frogs and Mise. His Hymnes and Epi- 
grams. Translated according to the originall, by 
George Chapman. London. Printed by John Bill, 
his Maiestie's Printer "-f This very rare volume is a 
thin folio, the contents of which are here presented to 
the reader. It has an exquisitely engraved title, by 
William Pass ; of which we have endeavoured to give a 

* See Preface to Iliads, pp. lxvii-vih. 
f He considers it his destiny, — 

••' The work that I was* born to do is done 1" 



i INTRODUCTION. 

facsimile. It is not necessary to inquire into the authent- 
icity of the (so-styled) Homeric Hymns. It will be 
sufficient to inform the reader that Chapman is the only 
writer who has translated the ivliole of the works ascribed 
to Homer. 

The original folio has been entirely followed in the 
present edition. Copies are now only to be purchased 
by those who can indulge in the luxuries of literature, 
if books of extreme rarity may be so called. Of this 
folio, a large paper copy is in the Archiepiscopal 
Library at Lambeth ; the only one I have seen. Messrs. 
Boone of Bond Street, whose collection of fine books is 
as well known as the liberality with which they com- 
municate information on them, have permitted me to 
transcribe a dedication, in Chapman's autograph, from 
a beautiful copy in their possession (since sold). It is 
as follows : — " In love § honor of y e Righte virtuouse 
and ivorthie Gent: 2T Henry Reynolds, and to croivne 
all his deservings ivith eternall memorie, Geo. Chapman 
formes this Croivne Sf conclusion of all the Homericall 
meritts u ,th his accomplisht Inprovements ; advising 
that if at first sighte he seeme darcTce or too fierie, He 
will yet holde him fast (like Proteus) till he appere in 
his jpropper similitude, and he will then sheive himself e 

— vatem egregium, cui non sit publica vena, 
Qui nihil expositum soleat deducere ; nee qui 
Communiferiat carmen triviale monetdj'* 

This book has been wrongly described in a former 
" Introduction/' as having a presentation Sonnet. Chap- 
man has with his pen made an alteration in his portrait, 
as possessing too much beard ; and in the Preface, in 

* Juvenal. Sat. vn. 53. 



INTRODUCTION. xi 

the passage u all for devouring a mouse/' he writes 
drowning ; and in the final Poem (line 17) for 

All is extuberance and excretion all, 

he reads " and tumor all.*' 

The date of the folio is probably about 1624. In the 
year 1818, my friend AEr. Singer* (to whom I dedicate 
this volume with the sincerest gratification) published 
an elegant edition of these Hymns, ifcc. at Chiswick. It 
contained two fine original poems by Chapman (first 
primed 1594) entitled " The Shadowe of Night : con- 
taining two poetical hymnes, devised by G. C, Gent." 
It formed one of Mr. Singer's series of " Select Early 
English Poets," and has long since been numbered 
amongst scarce books, as but a limited impression was 
given. The original edition of " The Shadowe of Night" 
is very rare. 

The version of the a Georgics of Hesiod" was so dif- 
ficult to find in Warton's time, that he doubted its ex- 
istence, (see Hist, of English Poetry, m. 360. ed. 1840,) 
although he discovered its entry in the Stationers' Ke- 
gisters. It is a small 4to. of 40 pp. As may be pre- 
sumed from its extreme rarity, its price is usually very 

* I avail myself of this opportunity of congratulating 
this veteran in Elizabethan Literature on his having lived to 
see the day when all Chapman's Translations have been re- 
published. His many reprints of early books (all testifying, 
by the eagerness with which they are sought, to his ability and 
accuracy) led the public to look back to our sterling old writers. 
Xor should we forget that Mr. Singer was the associate of Sir 
Egerton Brydges, Haslewood, and others, who loved these 
writers when they were comparatively unknown. Mr. Singer 
expressed a wish in the preface to the above-cited work, " that 
sufficient encouragement might be given to print Chapman's 
entire translation of Homer in a compressed and unostentatious 
portable form." 



x'i INTR OD UCTION. 

great. A good copy may be worth ten guineas ; it has 
reached eighteen. The largest I have seen is that in 
the Malone Collection in the Bodleian. There is a fair 
one in the General Library of the British Museum ; 
that in the Grenville (as has my own) has been much 
injured by the binder cutting into the notes, which are 
in the margin. Of this work, which is sadly misprinted 
in the original 4to., the present edition is the first reprint; 
and I have spared no pains to make it as accurate as 
possible. Its value as a Translation has been acknow- 
ledged by our best Translator of Hesiod, Elton. I 
trust, both from its rarity, and its intrinsic merits, it will 
be found an acceptable addition to the present volume. 
The title is a facsimile of the original edition. 

The "Hero and Leander" of Musseus is perhaps one of 
the rarest books in the ivhole range of English Literature. 
I have never heard of any copy but that in the Bodleian 
Library at Oxford; and I presume it to be unique. 
Dr. Bliss has given a full account of this very diminutive 
volume in vol. n. col. 9. of his edition of Wood's 
" Athenae Oxonienses." It is about two inches long, 
and one broad. I most carefully transcribed it, and 
twice visited Oxford to ensure the accuracy of this re- 
print. Chapman, it will be remembered, had continued 
Marlow's poem on the same subject ; but this is a trans- 
lation from the Greek of (the so-called) Musseus. The 
original edition being so extremely small, the lines are 
printed thus : — 

" Goddess, relate 

The witnesse-bearing light 
Of loves, that would not beare 

A human sight. 



INTRODUCTION. xiii 

The sea-man 

That transported marriages, 
Shipt in the night. 

His bosom ploughing the seas." 

The title prefixed to this present edition is a facsimile 
(in a larger size) of the original. 

The translation of the Fifth Satire of Juvenal is ap- 
pended to "A Justification of a Strange action of Nero 
in burying with a solemne Funerall one of the cast 
hay res of his Mistress Poppcea ; also a just Reproofe 
of a Romane Smellfeast, being the fifth Satyre of Juve- 
nalV 4to. 1629. The Tract was not worth reprint- 
ing. The Juvenal has been given to complete Chapman's 
Classical Translations. It is very scarce, and fetches 
a high price. 

Thus, reader, are you presented with this Chapmannic 
garland of rarities. In your hands I leave them. 



An error or two in the " Introductions'' to the 
former volumes may be corrected. 

Introduct. to Iliad, p. x. line 2, read " finical and 
exact spruceness." P. xxi. line 21, for elasped read 
elapsed. Iliad n. line 5, note, read " a sleeping giant" 

Introduct. to Odyssey, p. xii. line 6, read : — 



-" What may I reckon thee, 



Whose heavenly look showes not, nor voice sounds, man ?" 

P. xxx. line 9 from the bottom, for Grecians read 
Graians. 

By the usual kindness of J. Payne Collier, Esq. I am 



xiv INTRODUCTION. 

enabled to give a copy of the Sonnet to Sir Thomas 
Walsingham, prefixed to one or two copies of Chap- 
man's " All Fools." (See Odyssey, p. xxn.) It is 
printed verbatim. 

TO MY LONG LOU'D AND HONOURABLE FRIEND, 
SIR THOMAS WALSINGHAM, KNIGHT. 

Should I expose to euery common eye, 

The least allow'd birth of my shaken braine ; 
And not entitle it perticulerly 

To your acceptance, I were wurse then vaine. 
And though I am most loth to passe your sight 

with any such light marke of vanitie, 
Being markt with Age for Aimes of greater weight, 

and drownd in darke Death- vshering melancholy, 
Yet least by others stealth it be imprest, 

without my pasport, patcht with others wit, 
Of two enforst ills I elect the least ; 

and so desire your loue will censure it ; 

Though my old fortune keepe me still obscure, 
The light shall still bewray my ould loue sure. 

The reader is requested to correct the following 
" Faults escaped/' before perusing the volume. 

White Waltham, Berks, 
January, 1858. 




FAULTS ESCAPED. 

Hymn to Venus, 1. 121, place comma after past, and destroy 
it after beast in next line. P. 136, L 10, destroy comma after 
nostrorum. 

Hesiod, p. 172, notes, 1. 2, read partum ; p. 178, 1. 1, after 
hir'd place semicolon; p. 184, notes, 1. 5, for bother r. brother ; 
p. 186, 1. 5, after Hellenians place semicolon ; p. 188, 1. 6, put 
comma after observing, and destroy it after remain ; p. 189, 1. 4, 
destroy comma after beds ; p. 191, 1. 4, r. seasons 9 . 

Messrs, in title put full-stop after originall ; 1. 29, then Love, 
is the true reading' in the original, therefore destroy note ; 198, 
r. earthly ; 234, for should speed, r. shall ; 244, r. " At last this 
sweet voice past, and out did break 5" 259, for loose to scandal, 
r. friend ; annotations, p. 235, last line but two, r. tarn for Jaw. 

ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

Batrachomyomachia, line 100, for thither the true reading 
is doubtless th' other, notwithstanding the authority of the folio. 

Hymn to Hermes, 442, shrouds, i. e. recesses, see line 695. 

Hesiod. In consequence of Chapman's own notes beino- so 
numerous, I was unwilling to interpolate explanations of words 
(save here and there), but the following may be noted. 

Drayton's Introd. Poem, line I, fraught, i. e. freight. 5, I 
print travel I, as it is in the original, as it may bear either 
meaning of travail or travel. Bk. 1. 570, rode, I do not remember 
the word, but, if genuine, it would appear to mean supply. 
Bk. 11. Ill, clanges ; the original 4to. has changes, but Chapman 
twice uses the word clanges for the cry of the crane, see Iliad, 
III. 5, x. 244. 310, horned house-bearer — snail. 382, imp — add 
to, assist. A term in falconry, when a new feather is inserted 
in place of a broken one. 

In Chapman's Iliad, v. 498-9, occur the words dites and diters 
in reference to winnowing. Nares gives them in his Glossary 
citing Chapman as the only authority. It will be found, how- 
ever, that the word is nothing more than dights. See Hesiod, 
Georgics, Bk. 11. 343, and Days, 67. 




TABLE OF COXTEXTS. 

Page 

^ PISTLE Dedicatory xxi 

Trie Biurachoniyomachia 1 

Z|J£ Hymn to Apollo IS 

Hymn to Hermes 46 

First Hymn to Venus 79 

Second Hymn to Venus 95 

Bacchus or the Pirates 96 

Hymn to Mars 100 

to Diana 101 

Third Hymn to Venus 

Hymn to Pallas 102 

to Juno IU3 

to Ceres 103 

toCybele 103 

to Hercules 104 

to JEseulapius 105 

Cut r and Pollux 105 

to Mercury 106 

to Pan 106 

to Vulcan 109 

to Phoebus HO 

to Neptune 110 

to Jove Ill 

to Vesta ,.111 

to the Muses and Apollo 112 

to Bacchus 112 

to Diana 113 

to Pallas H-i 

to Vesta and Mercury 115 

to Earth 1 1 

b 



xviii CONTENTS. 

Pare 

Hymn to the Sun 118 

to the Moon 119 

to Castor and Pollux 120 

to Men of Hospitality 121 

EPIGRAMS AND OTHER FOEMS. 

ToCuma 122 

In his Eeturn to Cuma 122 

Upon the Sepulchre of Mid us 123 

Cuma, refusing -to eternize their State, &c 123 

An Essay of his begun Iliads 125 

To Thestor's Son inquisitive about the Causes of Things . 125 

To Neptune .125 

To the City of Erythrsea 126 

To Mariners 126 

The Pine 12? 

ToG!aucus 128 

Against the Samian Ministress or Nun ...... 1 28 

Written on the Council Chamber 129 

The Furnace called in to sing by Potters 129 

Eiresiune, or the Olive Branch 131 

To certain Fisher-Boys pleasing him with Piddles . .132 
The Translator's Epilogue 133 

END OF THE TRANSLATIONS OF HOMER. 

The Georgics of Hesiod 137 

Hesicd's Book of Days 201 

The Hero and Leander of Musa^us 207 

The Fifth Satire of Juvenal • . . . 237 



THE 



CROWNE of all HOMER'S WORKES, 
Batrachomyomachia ; 



OR, 



The Battaile of Frogs and Mife. 

HIS HYMNES AND EPIGRAMS. 

Tranjlated according toj e Original! 
By George Chapman. 



London : 
Printed by Iohn Bill, bis MAIESTJE'S Printer. 





TO MY EVER MOST-WORTHY-TO-BE-MOST 

HONOURED LORD, 

THE EARL OF SOMERSET, &c. 

OT forc'd by fortune, but since your free 

mind 
{Made by affliction) rests in choice re- 
signed 

To calm retreat, laid quite beneath the wind 
Of grace and glory, I Well know, my Lord, 
You would not be entitled to a word i 

That might a thought remove from your repose, 
To thunder and spit flames, as greatness does, 
For all the trumps that still tell where he goes. 
Of which trumps Dedication being one, 
Methinks I see you start to hear it blown. 10 

But this is no such trump as summons lords 
'Gainst Envy's steel to draw their leaden swords, 
Or 'gainst hare-lipp \l Detraction, Contempt, 
All which from all resistance stand exempt, 
It being as hard to sever wrong from merit, 15 

As meat-indu'd from blood, or blood from spirit. 
Nor in the sj^irit's chariot rides the soul 
In bodies chaste, with more divine control, 



xxii THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 

Nor virtue shines more in a lovely face, 

TJian true desert is stuck off with disgrace. 20 

And therefore Truth itself, that had to bless 

The merit of it all, Almightiness, 

Would not protect it from the bane and ban 

Of all moods most distraught and Stygian; 

As counting it the crown of all desert, 25 

Borne to heaven, to take of earth, no part 

Of false joy here, for joys-there-endless troth, 

Nor sell his birthright for a mess of broth. 

But stay and still sustain, and his bliss bring, 

Like to the hatching of the blackthorn's spring, 30 

With bitter frosts, and smarting hailstorms, forth. 

Fates love bees' labours ; only Pain crown's Worth. 

This Dedication culls no greatness, then, 

To patron this greatness-creating pen, 

Nor you to add to your dead calm a breath, 35 

For those arm'd angels, that in spite of death 

Inspir'd those flow' rs that ivrought this Poet's wreath, 

Shall keep it ever, Poesy's steepest star, 

As in Earth' s flaming walls, Heaven's sevenfold Car, 

From all the wilds of Neptune's wat'ry sphere, 40 

For ever guards the Erymanthian bear. 

Since then your Lordship settles in your shade 
A life retir'd, and no retreat is made 
But to some strength, {for else 'tis no retreat, 
But rudely running from your battle's heat) 45 

I give this as your strength ; your strength, my Lord, 
In counsels and examples, that afford 
More guard than whole hosts of corporeal pow' r , 
And more deliverance teach the fatal hour. 

Turn not your med'cine then to your disease, 50 



THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY, xxiii 

By your too set and slight repulse of these, 
The adjuncts of your matchless Odysses ; 
Since on that wisest mind of man relies 
Refuge from all life's infelicities. 

Nor sing these such division from them, 55 

But that these spin the thread of the same stream 
From one self distaff's stuff; for Poesy's pen, 
Through all themes, is t' inform the lives of men ; 
All whose retreats need strengths of all degrees ; 
Without which, had you even Herculean Jcnees, 60 

Your foes 7 fresh charges would at length prevail. 
To leave your noblest sufferance no least sail. 
Strength then the object is of cdl retreats ; 
Strength needs no friends'' trust ; strength your foes 

defeats. 
Retire to strength, then, of eternal things, 65 

And if are eternal; for our knowing springs 
Flow into those things that we truly lenow, 
Which being eternal, we are rendered so. 
And though your high-fix' d light pass infinite far 
TO! adviceful guide of my still -trembling star, to 

Yet hear what my discharged piece must foretel, 
Standing your poor and perdue sentinel. 
Kings may perhaps wish even your beggar 's- voice 
To their eternities, how scorn 9 d a choice 
Soever now it lies ; and (dead) I may 75 

Extend your life to lights extremest ray. 
If not, your Homer yet past doubt shall malce 
Immortal, like himself, your bountfs stake 
Put in my hands, to propagate your fame ; 
Such virtue reigns in such united name. so 

Retire to him then for advice, and skill, 



xxiv THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 

To know tilings calVd worst, best ; and best, most ill. 

Which known, truths best choose, and retire to still. 

And as our English general, (whose name 

Shall equal interest find in M house of fame BR 

With all Earth's great' st commanders.) in retreat 

To Belgian Gant, stood cdl Spain s armies' heat 

By Parma led, though but one thousand strong ; 

Three miles together thrusting through the throng 

Of tit enemy's horse, still pouring on their fall 90 

Twixt him and home, and thunder' d through them all ; 

The Gallic Monsieur standing on the wall, 

And woncVring at his dreadful discipline, 

Fird with a valour that spit spirit divine ; 

In five battallions ranging all his men, 95 

BristVd with pile es, andflanVd with flankers ten; 

Gave fire still in his rear ; retird., and wrought 

Down to hisfiafd strength still ; retird and fought ; 

All the battallions of the enemy's horse 

Storming upon him still their fieriest force ; 100 

Cliarge upon charge laid fresh ; he, fresh as day, 

JRepulsing cdl, and forcing glorious way 

Into the gates, that gasp 'd, (as swoons for air.) 

And toolc their life in, with untouched repair: — 

So fight out, sweet Earl, your retreat in peace ; 10.5 

No ope-war equals that where privy precise 

Of never -number' d odds of enemy, 

Arm'd cdl by envy, in blind ambush lie, 

To rush out lilce an opening threat ning slcy, 

Brolce all in meteors round about your ears. 110 

84 A simile illustrating the most renowned service of General 
Xorris in his retreat before Gant, never before made sacred to 
memory. — Chapman. 



THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY, xxv 

'Gainst which, though far from hence, through all your 

rears, 
Have fires prepar'd ; wisdom with wisdom fiank, 
And all your forces range in present rank ; 
Retiring as you now fought in your strength, 
From all the force laid, in time's utmost length, us 
To charge, and basely come on you behind. 
The doctrine of all which you here shall find, 
And in the true glass of a human mind. 
Your Odysses, the body letting see 
All his life past, through infelicity, 120 

And manage of it all. In which to friend, 
The full Muse brings you both the prime and end 
Of all arts ambient in the orb of man ; 
Which never darkness most Cimmerian 
Can give eclipse, since, blind, he all things saw, 125 
And to cdl ever since liv'd lord and law. 
And though our mere-leam \l men, and modern wise, 
Taste not poor Poesy's ingenuities, 
Being crusted with their covetous leprosies, 
But hold her pains ivorse than the spiders' work, 130 
And lighter than the shadow of a cork, 
Yet th' ancient learn' d, heat with celestial fire, 
Affirms her flames so sacred and entire, 
That not without God's greatest grace she can 
Fall in the wid'st capacity of man. 13.5 

If yet the vile soul of this verminous time 
Love more the sale-muse, and the squirrel's chime, 
Than this full sphere of poesy's sweetest prime, 
Give them unenvied their vain vein and vent, 

135 Ut non sine maximo favore Dei comparari queat. 

Platonis IB Ione. 



mi THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY, 

And rest your wings in his approve! ascent ho 

That yet was never reach' cl, nor ever fell 
Into affections bought with things tliat sell, 
Being the sun's flow' r, and wrapt so in his sky 
He cannot yield to every candle's eye. 

Whose most worthy discoveries, to your Lordship's 
judicial perspective, in most subdue humility 
submitteth, 

GEORGE CHAPMAN. 



XOTE. 

On this Epistle Dedicatory, Coleridge remarks : " Chap- 
man's identification of his fate with Homer's, and his complete 
forgetfulness of the distinction between Christianity and idol- 
atry, under the general feeling of some religion, is very in- 
teresting. It is amusing to observe, how familiar Chapman's 
fancy has become with Homer, his life and circumstances, 
though the very existence of any such individual, at least with 
regard to the Iliad and Hymns, is more than problematic. v 




THE OCCASION OF THIS IMPOSED 
CBOWNE. 

FTEK this not only Prime of Poets, but 
Philosophers, had written his two great 
poems of Iliads and Odysses ; which (for 
their first lights horn before all learning) 
were worthily called the Sun and Moon of the Earth ; 
finding no compensation, he writ in contempt of men 
this ridiculous poem of Vermin, giving them nobility of 
birth, valorous elocution not inferior to his heroes. At 
which the Gods themselves, put in amaze, called councils 
about their assistance of either army, and the justice of 
their quarrels, even to the mounting of Jove's artillery 
against them, and discharge of his three-forked flashes ; 
and all for the drowning* of a mouse. After which 
slight and only recreative touch, he betook him seriously 
to the honour of the Gods, in Hymns resounding all 
their peculiar titles, jurisdictions, and dignities; which 
he illustrates at all parts, as he had been continually 
conversant amongst them; and whatsoever authentic 
Poesy he omitted in the episodes contained in his Iliads 
and Odysses, he comprehends and concludes in his 

* This is Chapman's MS. correction for devouring in the fuiio. 



Hymns and Epigrams. All his observance and honour 
of the Gods, rather moved their envies against him, than 
their rewards, or respects of his endeavours. And so 
like a man verecundi ingenii (which he witnesseth of 
himself) he lived unhonoured and needy till his death ; 
and yet notwithstanding all men's servile and manacled 
miseries, to his most absolute and never- equalled merit, 
yea even bursten profusion to imposture and impiety, 
hear our ever-the-same intranced, and never-sleeping, 
Master of the Muses, to his last accents, incomparably 
singing. 






BATRACHOMYOMACHIA. 

NT'KING the fields, first let my vows 
call on 
The Muses' whole quire out of Helicon 
Into my heart, for such a poem's sake, 
As lately I did in my tables take, 
And put into report upon my knees. 5 

A fight so fierce, as might in all degrees 
Fit Mars himself, and his tumultuous hand, 
Glorying to dart to th' ears of every land 
Of all the voice -divided ; and to show 
How bravely did both Frogs and Mice bestow 10 

In glorious fight their forces, even the deeds 
Daring to imitate of Earth's Giant Seeds. 
Thus then men talk'd ; this seed the strife begat : 

The Mouse once dry, and 'scaped the dangerous cat, 
Drench'd in the neighbour lake her tender beard, 15 
To taste the sweetness of the wave it rear'd. 



9 Intending men : being divided from all other creatures by 
the voice ; /xepo^/, being a periphrasis, signifying voce divisus, 
of fxeipit) (/x€ipo/tat) divido, and o\p, 07r6g, vox. — Chapman. 

The notes marked C. are Chapman's. 



2 BATE A C HO MYOMA CHI A. 

The far-famed Fen-aifecter, seeing him, said : 
" Ho, stranger ! What are you, and whence, that tread 
This shore of ours ? Who brought you forth ? Reply 
What truth may witness, lest I find you lie. 20 

If worth fruition of my love and me, 
Til have thee home, and hospitality 
Of feast and gift, good and magnificent, 
Bestow on thee ; for all this confluent 
Resounds my royalty ; my name, the great 25 

In blown-up-count'nances and looks of threat, 
a Physio;nathus, adored of all Frogs here 
All then- days' durance, and the empire bear 
Of all their beings ; mine own being begot 
By royal b Peleus, niix'd in nuptial knot so 

With fair c Hydromedusa, on the bounds 
Near which Eridanus his race resounds. 
And thee mine eye makes my conceit inclined 
To reckon powerful both in forni and mind, 
A sceptre -bearer, and past others far 35 

Advanc'd in all the fiery fights of war. 
Come then, thy race to my renown commend." 

The Mouse made answer : " Why inquires my friend ? 
For what so well know men and Deities, 
And all the wing'd affecters of the skies ? 40 

d Psicharpax I am calPd ; e Troxartes' seed, 
Surnamed the Mighty-minded. She that freed 
Mine eyes from darkness was f Lichomyle, 

27 *$v<jiyva6oc, Genas et buccas inflans. C. 

30 h Yli]\evc, qui ex luto nascitur. C. 

31 ct Ycpo}xicovGa. Aqiiarum regina. C. 
» The river Po, in Italy. C 

41 A ¥ixapTra£. Gatker-crum, or ravish-crum. C. 
«' «Shear-crust. C. 43 f Lick-mill. C. 



BA TEA CHOMYOMA CHI A. 3 

King a Pternotroctes ? daughter, showing me, 

Within an aged hovel, the young light, 45 

Fed me with figs and nuts, and all the height 

Of varied viands. But unfold the cause, 

Why, 'gainst similitude's most equal laws 

Observed in friendship, thou niak'st me thy friend ? 

Thy life the waters only help t ? extend ; 50 

Mine, whatsoever men are used to eat, 

Takes part with them at shore ; their purest cheat, 

Thrice boulted, kneaded, and subdued in paste, 

In clean round kymnels, cannot be so fast 

From my approaches kept but in I eat ; 55 

Xor cheesecakes full of finest Indian wheat, 

That crusty-weeds wear, large as ladies' trains ; 

Liverings, white-skinn'd as ladies ; nor the strains 

Of press'd milk, renneted ; nor collops cut 

Fresh from the flitch ; nor junkets, such as put 60 

Palates divine in appetite ; nor any 

Of all men's delicates, though ne'er so many 

Their cooks devise them, who each dish see deckt 

With all the dainties all strange soils affect. 

Yet am I not so sensual to fly 65 

Of fields embattled the most fiery a 

44 a Bacon-flitch-devourer, or gnawer. C. 
" Cheat — the second sort of wheaten bread, according to 
Halliwell, who has well illustrated the word. See also Xares. 
54 Kymnels — household tubs. Chaucer has kemelin. 

57 Tavv~E7r\oc. Extenso et promissopeploamictus. A metaphor 
taken from ladies' veils, or trains, and therefore their names 
are here added. C. 

58 "RTraraXevKoxircora. Li vering puddings white-skinn'd. C. 
Livering, i. e. made of liver. 

60 Junkets — cheese pressed on rushes. Ital. giuncata. See 
Odyssey, Bk. vi. 107. 

04 UavToccnroiaiv. Whose common exposition is only variis, 
when it properly signifies ex omni solo* C. 



4 BA TEA C HO MYOMA CHI A. 

But rush out straight, and with the first in fight 

Mix in adventure. No man with affright 

Can daunt my forces, though his body be 

Of never so immense a quantity, 70 

But making up, even to his bed, access, 

His fingers' ends dare with my teeth compress, 

His feet taint likewise, and so soft seize both 

They shall not taste th' impression of a tooth. 

Sweet sleep shall hold his own in every eye 75 

Where my tooth takes his tartest liberty. 

But two there are, that always, far and near, 

Extremely still control my force with fear, 

The Cat, and Night-hawk, who much scathe confer 

On all the outrays where for food I err. so 

Together with the straits-still-keeping trap, 

Where lurks deceitful and set-spleen'd mishap. 

But most of all the Cat constrains my fear, 

Being ever apt t' assault me everywhere ; 

For by that hole that hope says I shall 'scape, So 

At that hole ever she commits my rape. 

The best is yet, I eat no pot-herb grass, 

Nor radishes, nor coloquintidas, 

Nor still-green beets, nor parsley ; which you make 

Your dainties still, that live upon the lake.' r 90 

The Frog replied : " Stranger, your boasts creep all 

Upon their bellies ; though to our lives fall 

Much more miraculous meats by lake and land, 

Jove tend' ring our lives with a twofold hand, 

Enabling us to leap ashore for food, 95 

73 Taint — i. e. touch, assault. See Iliad, Bk. in. 374. 

80 Outrays— see Iliad, Bk. v. 793. 

61 'S.rovoEGGaV) of GTSVog, angustus. C. 

88 Coloquintidas— pumpkins. 



BA TEA OHOMYOMA CHI A. 5 

And hide us straight in our retreatful flood. 

Which, if jour will serve, you may prove with ease. 

I'll take you on my shoulders ; which fast seize, 

If safe arrival at my house y' intend.'' 

He stoop'd, and thither spritely did ascend, 100 

Clasping his golden neck, that easy seat 

Gave to his sally ; who was jocund yet, 

Seeing the safe harbours of the king so near, 

And he a swimmer so exempt from peer. 

But when he sunk into the purple wave, 105 

He niourn d extremely, and did much deprave 

Unprofitable penitence ; his hair 

Tore by the roots up, labour d for the air 

With his feet fetch' d up to his belly close ; 

His heart within him panted out repose, 110 

For th' insolent plight in which his state did stand ; 

Siglr d bitterly, and long'd to greet the land, 

Forced by the dire need of his freezing fear. 

First, on the waters he his tail did store, 

Like to a stern ; then drew it like an oar, 115 

Still praying the Gods to set him safe ashore ; 

Yet sunk he midst the red waves more and more, 

And laid a throat out to his utmost height ; 

Yet in forced speech he made his peril slight, 

And thus his glory with his grievance strove : ho 

" Xot in such choice state was the charge of love 

Borne by the bull, when to the Cretan shore 

He swum Europa through the wavy roar, 

As this Frog ferries me, his pallid breast 

106 Depra re— vilify, abuse. See Iliad, Bk. vi. 564. 

114 Stere — this is the old orthography for stir in Chapman, 
but it may probably mean steer. 

115 Stern — rudder. 



6 BATE A CHOMYOMA CHI A. 

Bravely advancing, and his verdant crest 125 

(Submitted to my seat) made my support, 

Through his white waters, to his royal court." 

But on the sudden did apparance make 

An horrid spectacle, — a Water-snake 

Thrusting his freckled neck above the lake. 130 

Which seen to both, away Physignathus 

Dived to his deeps, as no way conscious 

Of whom he left to perish in his lake, 

But shunn'd black fate himself, and let him take 

The blackest of it ; who amidst the fen 135 

Swum with his breast up, hands held up in vain, 

Cried Peepe, and perish'd ; sunk the waters oft, 

And often with his sprawlings came aloft, 

Yet no way kept down death's relentless force, 

But, full of water, made an heavy corse. uo 

Before he perish'd yet, he threaten'd thus : 

" Thou lurk'st not yet from heaven, Physignathus, 

Though yet thou hid'st' here, that hast cast from thee, 

As from a rock, the shipwrack'd life of me, 

Though thou thyself no better was than I, 145 

O worst of things, at any faculty, 

Wrastling or race. But, for thy perfidy 

In this my wrack, Jove bears a wreakful eye ; 

And to the host of Mice thou pains shalt pay, 

Past all evasion." This his life let say, 150 

And left him to the waters. Him beheld 

a Lichopinax, placed in the pleasing field, 

Who shriek'd extremely, ran and told the Mice ; 

Who having heard his wat'ry destinies, 

126 Submitted— see Iliad, Bk. xix. 258. 
152 a Lickdish. C. 



BA TEA CEO MYOMA CHI A. 7 

Pernicious anger pierced the hearts of all, 155 

And then their heralds forth they sent to call 

A council early, at Troxartes' house, 

Sad father of this fatal shipwrack'd Mouse ; 

Whose dead corse upwards swum along the lake, 

Nor yet, poor wretch, could be enforced to make 160 

The shore his harbour, but the mid-main swum. 

When now, all haste made, with first morn did come 

All to set council ; in which first rais'd head 

Troxartes, angry for his son, and said : 

" O friends, though I alone may seem to bear 165 

All the infortune, yet may all met here 

Account it their case. But 'tis true, I am 

In chief unhappy, that a triple flame 

Of life feel put forth, in three famous sons.: 

The first, the chief in our confusions, 170 

The Cat, made rape of, caught without his hole : 

The second, Man, made with a cruel soul, 

Brought to his ruin with a new-found sleight, 

And a most wooden engine of deceit, 

They term a Trap, mere murth'ress of our Mice. 175 

The last, that in my love held special price, 

And his rare mother's, this Physignathus 

(With false pretext of wafting to his house) 

Strangled in chief deeps of his bloody stream. 

Come then, haste all, and issue out on them, 180 

Our bodies deck'd in our Dsedalean arms." 

This said, his words thrust all up in alarms, 

166 Infortune— Odyssey, Bk. xx. 119. 

175 'OXsrajoa. Interfectrix, perditrix. C. Mere — see Odyssey, 
Bk. vm. 115. 

181 Dcedalean— simply variegated, (SaidaXeoKJi.) 



8 BA TEA CHOMYOMA CHI A. 

And Mars himself, that serves the cure of war, 

Made all in their appropriates circular. 

First on each leg the green shales of a hcan 185 

They closed for hoots, that sat exceeding clean ; 

The shales they hroke ope, hoothaling hy night, 

And ate the beans ; their jacks art exquisite 

Had shown in them, being cats' skins, everywhere 

Quilted with quills ; their fenceful bucklers were 190 

The middle rounds of can' sticks ; but their spear 

A huge Jong needle was, that could not bear 

The brain of any but be Mars his own 

Mortal invention ; their heads' arming crown 

Was vessel to the kernel of a nut. 195 

And thus the Mice their powers in armour put. 

This the Frogs hearing, from the water all 
Issue to one place, and a council call 
Of wicked war ; consulting what should be 
Cause to this murmur and strange mutiny. 200 

While this was questioned, near them made his stand 
An herald with a sceptre in his hand, 
a Embasichytrus call'd, that fetch'd his kind 
From b Tyroglyphus with tire mighty mind, 
Denouncing ill-named war in these high terms : 205 
" O Frogs ! the Mice send threats to you of arms, 

184 Appropriates — proper arms. 

186 e£ r > cMjKriGavTEQ) ab CLfTicku), elaborate concinno. C. 

187 Boothaling — foraging for booty, plundering. Halliwell 
has well explained it 5 but this is a good example. Probably 
Chapman meant a pun on boots and &oo£-haling : they foraged 
for booty to make boots, 

188 Jacks— buff jerkins. See Chapman's Commentary on 
Iliad, xiii. 637. 

191 Can sticks — candlesticks. See Halliwell. 

203 a Enter-pot, or search-pot. C. 

204 b Cheese-miner. Qui caseum rodendo cavat. C.(Tyroglyphus.) 



BATE A CH MYOMA CHI A. 9 

And bid me bid ye battle and fix'd fight ; 
Their eyes all wounded with Psicharpax' sight 
Floating your waters, whom your king hath kill'd. 
And therefore all prepare for force of field, 210 

You that are best born whosoever held." 
This said, he sever'd ; his speech firing th' ears 
Of all the Mice, but freez'd the Frogs with fears, 
Themselves conceiting guilty ; whom the king- 
Thus answer'd, rising, " Friends ! I did not bring 215 
Psicharpax to his end ; he, wantoning 
Upon our waters, practising to swim, 
Aped us, and drown' d without my sight of him. 
And yet these worst of vermin accuse me, 
Though no way guilty. Come, consider we 220 

How we may ruin these deceitful Mice. 
For my part, I give voice to this advice, 
As seeming fittest to direct our deeds : 
Our bodies decking with our arming weeds, 
Let all our pow'rs stand rais'd in steep'st repose 225 
Of all our shore ; that, when they charge us close, 
AVe may the helms snatch off from all so deckt, 
Daring our onset, and them all deject 
Down to our waters ; who, not knowing the sleight 
To dive our soft deeps, may be strangled straight, 230 
And we triumphing may a trophy rear, 
Of all the Mice that we have slaughter'd here." 

These words put all in arms ; and mallow leaves 
They drew upon their legs, for arming greaves. 
Their curets, broad green beets ; their bucklers were 
Good thick-leaved cabbage, proof 'gainst any spear ; 236 

218 Mifxovnevog. Aping, or imitating us. C. 
224 Weeds — i. e. garments 5 a very common word. 
* 34 Boots of war. C. 



10 BA TEA CHOMYOMA CHI A. 

Their spears sharp bulrushes, of which were all 

Fitted with long ones ; their parts capital 

They hid in subtle cockleshells from blows. 

And thus all arm'd, the steepest shores they chose 240 

T' encamp themselves ; where lance with lance they lined, 

And brandish' d bravely, each Frog full of mind. 

Then Jove calPd all Gods in his flaming throne, 
And show'd all all this preparation 
For resolute war ; these able soldiers, 245 

Many, and great, all shaking lengthful spears, 
In show like Centaurs, or the Giants' host. 
When, sweetly smiling, he inquired who, most 
Of all th' Immortals, pleased to add their aid 
To Frogs or Mice ; and thus to Pallas said : 250 

" O Daughter ! Must not you needs aid these Mice, 
That, with the odours and meat sacrifice 
Used in your temple, endless triumphs make, 
And serve you for your sacred victuals' sake ?" 

Pallas replied: " O, Father, never I 255 

Will aid the Mice in any misery. 
So many mischiefs by them I have found, 
Eating the cotton that my distaffs crown'd, 
My lamps still haunting to devour the oil. 
But that which most my mind eats, is their spoil 260 
Made of a veil, that me in much did stand, 
On which bestowing an elaborate hand, 
A fine woof working of as pure a thread, 
Such holes therein their petulancies fed 
That, putting it to darning, when 'twas done, 265 

The darner a most dear pay stood upon 

236 p ar f S capital — heads. 

258 ^Ertfifiara, Lanas, eo quod colus cingant seu coronent. Which 
our learned sect translate eating the crowns that Pallas wore. C. 



BA TEA CHOMYOMA CHI A. 11 

For his so dear pains, laid down instantly ; 

Or, to forbear, exacted usury. 

So, borrowing from my fane the weed I wove, 

I can by no means th' usurous darner move 270 

To let me have the mantle to restore. 

And this is it that rubs the angry sore 

Of my offence took at these petulant Mice. 

Nor will I yield the Frogs' wants my supplies, 

For their infirm minds that no confines keep ; 275 

For I from war retired, and wanting sleep, 

All leap'd ashore in tumult, nor would stay 

Till one wink seized mine eyes, and so I lay 

Sleepless, and pain'd with headache, till first light 

The cock had crow'd up. Therefore, to the fight 2S0 

Let no God go assistant, lest a lance 

AVound whosoever offers to advance, 

Or wishes but their aid, that scorn all foes, 

Should any God's access their spirits oppose. 

Sit we then pleased to see from heaven their fight." 285 

She said, and all Gods join'd in her delight. 
And now both hosts to one field drew the jar, 
Both heralds bearing the ostents of war. 
And then the wine-gnats, that shrill trumpets sound, 
Terribly rung out the encounter round ; 290 

Jove thund'red ; all heaven sad war's si^n resounded. 

And first a Hypsiboas b Lichenor wounded, 
Standing th' impression of the first in fight. 
His lance did in his liver's midst alight, 
Along his belly. Down he fell ; his face 295 

268 Tgkoq, Partus, et id quod partu edidit mater. 3Ietap. hie 
appellator fcenus quod ex usurd ad 7ios redit. C. 

289 Kwvujip' Culex vinarius. C ® 2 a Loud-mouth. C. 

292 b Kitchen-vessel licker. C. 



1 2 BA TEA CH MYOMA CHI A. 

His fall on that part sway'd, and all the grace 
Of his soft hair fiTd with disgraceful dust. 

Then a Troglodytes his thick javelin thrust 
In b Pelion's bosom, hearing him to ground, 
Whom sad death seized ; his soul flew through his wound. 

c Seutla?us next Emhasichytros slew, 301 

His heart through-thrusting. Then d A.rtophagus threw 
His lance at e Polyphon, and struck him quite 
Through his mid- helly ; down he fell upright, 
And from his fair limbs took his sold her flight. 305 

f Limnocharis, beholding Polyphon 
Thus done to death, did, with as round a stone 
As that the mill turns, Troglodytes wound, 
Near his mid-neck, ere he his onset found ; 
Whose eyes sad darkness seized. § Lichenor cast 3io 
A flying dart off, and his aim so placed 
Upon Limnocharis, that sure he thought 
The wound he wish'd him ; nor untruly wrought 
The dire success, for through his liver flew 
The fatal lance ; which when h Crambophagus knew, 315 
Down the deep waves near shore he, diving, fled ; 
But fled not fate so ; the stern enemy fed 
Death with his life in diving ; never more 
The air he drew in ; his vermilion gore 
Stain' d all the waters, and along the shore 320 

298 a Hole-dweller. Qui foramina subit. C . Chapman, as is 
constantly the case, has altered the quantity of the word. 

299 b Mud-born. C. 3U1 'Beet-devourer. C. 

302 <i 'p ne g rea t bread eater. C. 

303 e Uo\v(f)U)vov, The great-noise-maker, shrill or big- 
voiced. C. 305 f The lake-lover. C. 

310 s Qui lambit culinaria vasa, C. 

312 TiTVGKOfJLai intentissime dirigo ut certum ictum inferam, C. 

a15 h The cabbage-eater. C. 



BATRACHOMYOMACHIA. 13 

He laid extended ; his fat entrails lay 
(By his small guts' impulsion) breaking way 
Out at his wound. a Limnisius near the shore 
Destroyed Tyroglyphus. Which frighted sore 
The soul of b Calaminth, seeing coming on, 325 

For wreak, c Pternoglyphus ; who got him gone 
With large leaps to the lake, his target thrown 
Into the waters. d Hydrocharis slew 
King e Pternophagus, at whose throat he threw 
A huge stone, strook it high, and beat his brain 330 
Out at his nostrils. Earth blush'd with the stain 
His blood made on her bosom. For next prise, 
Lichopinax to death did sacrifice 
f Borboroccetes' faultless faculties ; 
His lance enforced it ; darkness closed his eyes. 33o 
On which when g Prassophagus cast his look, 
h Cnissodioctes by the heels he took, 
Dragg'd him to fen from off his native ground, 
Then seized his throat, and soused him till he drown'd. 
But now Psicharpax wreaks his fellows' deaths, 340 
And in the bosom of 'Pelusius sheaths, 
In centre of his liver, his bright lance. 
He fell before the author of the chance ; 
His soul to hell fled. Which k Pelobates 
Taking sad note of, wreakfully did seize 346 

His hand's gripe full of mud, and all besmear'd 

323 a Paludis incola. Lake-liver. C. 

325 b Qui in calamintha, herbd palustri, habitat. C. 

326 c Bacon-eater. C. 328 d Qui aquis delectatur. C. 
329 e Collup-devourer. C. Another of Chapman's false 

quantities. 334 f Mud-sleeper. C. 

336 s Leek or scallion lover. C. A similar error. 

337 h Kitchin-smell haunter, or hunter. C. 

341 iFenstalk. C. 344 k Qui per lutum it. C. 



14 BA TEA CEO MYOMA CHI A. 

forehead with it so, that scarce appear d 
The light to him. "Which certainly incensed 
His fiery spleen ; who with his wreak dispensed 
X point of time, but rear d with his strong hand 350 
»ne so massy it oppressed the land, 
I hurTd it at him ; when below the knee 
:*>k his right leg so impetuously 
It piecemeal brake it ; he the dust did seize, 

.ids everted. But * Graugasides 
Bevenged his death, and at his enemy 
Discharged a dart that did his point imply 
In his mid-belly. All the sharp-piTd spear 
Got after in, and did before it hear 
His universal entrails to the earth, 
Soon as his sworn hand gave his javlin birth. 

- S:: ."■ ■"_■.." _'."^. \t"_ -!:::_ :i: -:. '. ~i_i;:. 
Set on the shore, went halting from the fight, 

j from extreme fete, leapM into the lake. 
Troxartes strook, in th* instep's upper part, 
Physignathus ; who (privy to the smart 
His wound imparted) with his utmost haste 
Leap'd to the lake, and fled. Troxartes east 
His eye upon the foe that fell before, 
And, seeing him hatf-li ved. longM again to gore 

jtless bosom ; and, to kill him quite, 
Ban fiercely at him. TVTiieh c Prassseus' sight 
Took instant note of, and the first in fight 
7. : .:-: 7~- 7:.:: ~:r~ 7„ :.:_;7. :l-: : jl^ lis kv-3- *::;{ 
Off at Troxartes; whose shield tunfd th' advance sis 

» •Vociferate: - : Zi: :m C. 



BA TEA CE 031 TO 31 A CHI A. 15 

The sharp head made, and checked the mortal chance. 

Amongst the Mice fought an egregious 
Young springall, and a ciose-encount'ring Mouse. 
Pure a Artepibulus's dear descent : 380 

A prince that Man himself show'd where he went, 
(Call'd b Meridarpax,) of so huge a might, 
That only he still domineered in fight 
Of all the Mouse-host. He advancing close 
Up to the lake, past all the rest arose 
In glorious object, and made vaunt that he 
Came to depopulate all the progeny 
Of Frogs, affected with the lance of war. 
And certainly he had put on as far 
As he advanced his vaunt, he was endu'd 390 

With so unmatch'd a force and fortitude, 
Had not the Father both of Gods and men 
Instantly known it, and the Frogs, even then 
Given up to ruin, rescued with remorse. 
Who, his head moving, thus began discourse : 395 

*• No mean amaze affects me, to behold 
Prince Meridarpax rage so uncontrolled, 
In thirst of Frog-blood, all along the lake. 
Come therefore still, and all addression make, 
Despatching Pallas, with tumultuous Mars, 400 

Down to the field, to make him leave the wars, 
How potently soever he be said 
Where he attempts once to uphold his head.'' 

Mars answer'd : " O Jove, neither She nor I, 
With both our aids, can keep depopulacy 40.5 

380 a Bread-betrayer. C. (Artepibulus.) 
b Scrap, or broken-meat-eater. C. 
kpaTcpjg, validus aeu pctens in rttinendo. C. 



16 BA TEA C1I01IY0MA CHI A. 

From off the Frogs ! And therefore arm we all, 

Even tliv lanee letting brandish to his call 

From off the field, that from the field withdrew 

The Titanois, the Titanois that slew. 

Though most exempt from match of all earth's Seeds. 

So great and so inaccessible deeds 411 

It hath proclaimed to men ; bound hand and foot 

The vast Enceladus ; and rac d by tk' root 

The race of upland Giants." This speech past. 

Satnrnius a smoking lightning cast 415 

Amongst the armies, thund'ring then so sore, 

That with a rapting circumflex he bore 

All huge heaven over. But the terrible ire 

Of his dart, sent abroad, all wrapt in fire, 

("Which certainly his very finger was) 420 

Amazed both ^lice and Frogs. Yet soon let pass 

Was all this by the Mice, who much the more 

Burn'd in desire t' exterminate the store 

Of all those lance-loved soldiers. Which had been. 

If from Olympus Jove's eye had not seen 425 

The Frogs with pity, and with instant speed 

Sent them assistants. Who, ere any heed 

Was given to their approach, came crawling on 

With anvils on their backs, that, beat upon 

Never so much, are never wearied yet ; 430 

Crook-paw'd, and wrested on with foul cloven feet, 

Tongues in their mouths, brick-back'd, all over bone. 

414 Upland is constantly used in Chapman for rough, rude : 
up-land i. e. from the country, as distinguished from the 
civilization of the town. 

A-£) ^bJTQLK}.LOvec. Incudes ferentes, or anvil-backed. "Acicw. 
Incus, dicta per syncopen quasi nullis ictibus fatigetur. C. 

As2 ^aXiCooarixoQ, Forcipem in ore habens. C. 



BATRACHOMYOMACHIA. 17 

Broad shoulder'd, whence a ruddy yellow shone, 
Distorted, and small- thigh' d ; had eyes that saw 
Out at their hosoms ; twice four feet did draw 435 

About their bodies ; strong-neck'd, whence did rise 
Two heads ; nor could to any hand be prise ; 
They call them lobsters ; that ate from the Mice 
Their tails, their feet, and hands, and wrested all 
Their lances from them, so that cold appall uo 

The wretches put in rout, past all return. 
And now the Fount of Light forbore to burn 
Above the earth ; when, which men's laws commend, 
Our battle in one day took absolute end. 



THE END OF HOMER S BATTLE OF FEOGS AND MICE. 





ALL THE HYMNS OF HOMER. 



A HYMX TO APOLLO. 




WILL remember and express the praise 
Of heaven's Far-darter, the fair King of 

days, 
Whom even the Gods themselves fear 
when he goes 
Through Jove's high house ; and when his goodly bows 
He goes to bend, all from their thrones arise, s 

And cluster near, t' admire his faculties. 
Only Latona stirs not from her seat 
Close by the Thund'rer, till her Son's retreat 
From his dread archery ; but then she goes, 
Slackens his string, and shuts his quiver close, 10 

And (having taken to her hand his bow, 
From off his able shoulders) doth bestow 
Upon a pin of gold the glorious tiller, 
The pin of gold fix'd in his father's pillar. 

Then doth She to his throne his state uphold, is 

Where his great Father, in a cup of gold, 

13 Tiller— bow. 



A HYMN TO APOLLO. 19 

Serves him with nectar, and shows all the grace 

Of his great son. Then th' other Gods take place ; 

His gracious mother glorying to bear 

So great an archer, and a son so clear. 20 

All hail, blest Latona ! to bring forth 
An issue of such all-out-shining worth, 
Royal Apollo, and the Queen that loves 
The hurls of darts. She in th' Ortygian groves, 
And he in cliffy Delos, leaning on 25 

The lofty Oros, and being built upon 
By Cynthus' prominent, that his head rears 
Close to the palm that Inops' fluent cheers. 

How shall I praise thee, far being worthiest praise, 
O Phoebus ? To whose worth the law of lays 30 

In all kinds is ascrib'd, if feeding flocks 
By continent or isle. All eminent'st rocks 
Did sing for joy, hill- tops, and floods in song 
Did break their billows, as they flow'd along 
To serve the sea ; the shores, the seas, and all 35 

Did sing as soon as from the lap did fall 
Of blest Latona thee the joy of man. 
Her child-bed made the mountain Cynthian 
In rocky Delos, the sea-circled isle, 
On whose all sides the black seas brake their pile, 40 
And overflow 'd for joy, so frank a gale 
The singing winds did on their waves exhale. 

Here born, all mortals live in thy commands, 
"Whoever Crete holds, Athens, or the strands 
Of th' isle iEgina, or the famous land 45 

For ships (Eubcea), or Eresia, 
Or Peparethus bord'ring on the sea, 
23 Viz. Diana. 



20 A HYMN TO APOLLO. 

2Egas, or Athos that doth Thrace divide 

And Macedon ; or Pelion, with the pride 

Of his high forehead ; or the Samian isle, so 

That likewise lies near Thrace ; or Seyms' soil ; 

Ida's steep tops ; or all that Phocis fill ; 

Or Autocanes, with the heaven-high hill ; 

Or populous Imber ; Lemnos without ports ; 

Or Lesbos, fit for the divine resorts ; 55 

And sacred soil of blest ^Eolion ; 

Or Chios that exceeds comparison 

For fruitfulness ; with all the isles that lie 

Embraced with seas ; Mimas, with rocks so high ; 

Or lofty- crown' d Corycius ; or the bright 60 

Charos ; or ^Esagseus' dazzling height ; 

Or watery Samos ; Mycale, that bears 

Her brows even with the circles of the spheres ; 

Miletus ; Cous, that the city is 

Of voice-divided-choice humanities ; 65 

High Cnidus ; Carpathus, still strook with wind ; 

Naxos, and Paros ; and the rocky-min'd 

Rugged Rhenaea. Yet through all these parts 

Latona, great-grown with the King of darts, 

Travell'd ; and tried if any would become 70 

To her dear birth an hospitable home. 

All which extremely trembled, shook with fear, 

Xor durst endure so high a birth to bear 

In their free states, though, for it, they became 

Xever so fruitful ; till the reverend Dame 75 

Ascended Delos, and her soil did seize 

With these wing'd words : " Delos ! Wouldst thou 

please 
To be my son Apollo's native seat, 
53 Autocanes. 



A WTMB TO APOLLO. 21 

And build a wealthy fane to one so great, 

Xo one shall blame or question thy kind deed. 5: 

Xor think I, thou dost sheep or oxen feed 

In any such store, or in vi fd, 

Xor bring'st forth such innumerable plan 

Which often make the rich inhabitants 

Careless of Deity. If thou then shouldst rear 

A fane to Phcebus. all men would confer 

Whole hecatombs of be 

and to thee would rise 
1 unmeasur'd odours, shouldst thou long 
Xourish thy King thus : and from foreign wrong 90 
The Gods would guard thee ; which thine own address 
Can never compass for thy barrenn- 

She said, and Delos jojM, replying thus: 
•• Most happy si-: 

Hy would with all means entertain H 

The Xing your son. being now despised of men, 

:ould be honoured with the _ :lien. 

Yd this I fear, nor will conceal from th 
Your so: v. will author mL 

In many kinds, as being to sustain 100 

A mighty empire over Gods and men. 
Upon the holy-gif:- _ th. 

And I tear that, when his birth 

- him the sight of my so barren a 
ill contemn, and give me up to spoil, 105 

Enforce the sea to me. that ever will 
Oppress my heart with many a wat'ry hill. 
And therefore let him choose some other land, 
Where he shall please, to build at his command 
Temple and grove, set thick with many a tree. 110 



22 A HYMN TO AT' 

For wretched polyposes breed in me 
Retiring chambers, and bla< >es den 

In my poor soil, for penury of men. 
And yet. Goddess, wouldst thou pit vear 

The G at oath to me. before thou I 

Thy blessed son here, that thou wilt t 
A fane to him. to render the eft 
Of men's demands to them before they fall, 
Then will thy general, 

Men will his name in such variety call. ::■: 

And I shall then be glad his birth to bear." 
This said, the G a nth she thus did swear : 

'• Know this. O Earth ! broad heaven's inferior sphere, 
And of black Styx the most infernal lake, 
(Which is the g rods can take) us 

That here shall ever rise to Phoebus' name 
An odorous fane and altar ; and thy fame 
Honour, past all ud :ini empIoyM." 

Her oath thus took and ended, Delos joy 
In mighty measure that she should become uo 

To fa:— h : Phcebus' birth the famous home. 
Latona then nine days and nights did fall 
In hopeless labour ; at whose birth were all 
Heaven's: ; me and Idesaes, 

Dione, Rhsea. and us 

Themis, and Amphitrite that will be 
Pursu d with sighs still : I eity, 

Except the snowy- wristed wife of Jc 
Who held her moods aloft, and would not mo 
Only Lucina ( to whose virtue vows l-io 

h childbirth patient) heard not of her throes, 
113 Den — i. e. make dens. 



A HYMN TO APOLLO. 23 

But sat, by Juno's counsel, on the brows 
Of broad Olympus, wrapp'd in clouds of gold. 
Whom Jove's proud wife in envy did withhold, 
Because bright-lock'd Latona was to bear 145 

A son so faultless and in force so clear. 
The rest Thaumantia sent before, to bring 
Lucina to release the envied king, 
Assuring her, that they would straight confer 
A carcanet, nine cubits long, on her, 150 

All woven with wires of gold. But charged her, then, 
To call apart from th' ivory-wristed Queen 
The childbirth-guiding Goddess, for just fear 
Lest, her charge utter'd in Saturnia's ear, 
She, after, might dissuade her from descent. 155 

When wind-swift-footed Iris knew i\\ intent 
Of th' other Goddesses, away she went, 
And instantly she passed the infinite space 
'Twixt earth and heaven ; when, coming to the place 
Where dwelt th' Immortals, straight without the gate 
She gat Lucina, and did all relate 161 

The Goddesses commanded, and inclin'd 
To all that they demanded her dear mind. 
And on their way they went, like those two doves 
That, walking highways, every shadow moves 165 

Up from the earth, forc'd with their natural fear. 
When ent'ring Delos, She, that is so dear 
To dames in labour, made Latona straight 
Prone to delivery, and to wield the weight 
Of her dear burthen with a world of ease. 170 

When, with her fair hand, she a palm did seize, 
And, staying her by it, stuck her tender knees 
147 Thaumantia — Iris. 



24 A HTMX TO APOLLO. 

Ami -mile beneath 

Her na q cd labour : and the child did breathe 
The air in th* instant. All the Goddess - 
Brake in kind 

:hee. O archer Phoebus, with w» 
Wftfih'd sweetly over, swaddled with sincere 
And spotless swathbands ; and made then to flow 
About thy breast a mantle, white as snow, 
Fine, and new made ; and cast a veil of gold 
r thy forehead. 2s rth did hold 

Thy mother for thy food her golden breast, 
But Themis, in supply of it, address 
Lovely Ambrosia, and drunk off to thee 
A bowl of nectar, interchangeably 
With her immortal fingers serving thine. 
And when, O Phoebus, that eternal wine 
Thy taste had relish'd, and that food divine, 
No golden swathband longer could contain :,o 

Thy panting bosom ; all that would constrain 
Thy soon-eas*d Goolhead, every feeble chain 
Of earthy child-rites, flew in sunder all. 
And then dhdst thou thus to the Deities call : 

•• Let rhere be given me my lov*d lute and bow, 195 
I'll prophesy to men, and make them know 

'a perfect counsels. 9 ' This said, up did fly 
From broad-wayM Earth the unshorn Do: 
-shot Apollo. All th' Immortals stood 
In steep amaze to see Latona's brood. : : 

All Delos, looking on him, all with gold 

raight, and joy'd to be extolTd 
By great Latona so, tha eed 

" : > ;::--_ — •■.::;-.-.::-.::-.::::.".: '..::.-.: L :■.-.:" Scr.s-f. 



A HYMN TO APOLLO. 25 

Her barrenness should bear the friutful'st seed 

Of all the isles and continents of earth, 205 

And lov'd her from her heart so for her birth. 

For so she flourished, as a hill that stood 

Crown'd with the flow'r of an abundant wood. 

And thou, O Phcebus, bearing in thy hand 

Thy silver bow, walk'st over every land, 210 

Sometimes ascend'st the rough-hewn rocky hill 

Of desolate Cynthus, and sometimes tak'st will 

To visit islands, and the plumps of men. 

And many a temple, all ways, men ordain 

To thy bright Godhead ; groves, made dark with trees, 

And never shorn, to hide the Deities, 316 

All high-lov'd prospects, all the steepest brows 

Of far-seen hills, and every flood that flows 

Forth to the sea, are dedicate to thee. 

But most of all thy mind's alacrity 220 

Is rais'd with Delos ; since, to fill thy fane, 

There flocks so many an Ionian, 

With ample gowns that flow down to their feet, 

With all their children, and the reverend sweet 

Of all their pious wives. And these are they 225 

That (mindful of thee) even thy Deity 

Render more spritely with their champion fight, 

Dances, and songs, perforni'd to glorious sight, 

Once having publish'd, and proclahn'd their strife. 

And these are acted with such exquisite life 230 

That one would say, " Xow, the Ionian strains 

213 Plumps — crowds, collection. A common old word. 

224 Sweet — so spelt in the folio ; but the word is doubtless suite, 
attendance, retinue. Todd gives an example of suite from Sir 
Philip Sydney. 

227 Champion fight — irvy\ia\i-Q, boxing. 

231 Strains — families, descent. See Odyssey, Bk. 1. 344. 



2(3 A HYMN TO APOLLO. 

Are tuniM Immortals, nor know what age means. " 

His mind would take such pleasure from his eye, 

To see them serv'd by all mortality, 

Their men so human, women so well grac'd, 235 

Their ships so swift, their riches so increas'd, 

Since thy observance, who, being all before 

Thy opposites, were all despis'd and poor. 

And to all these this absolute wonder add, 

Whose praise shall render all posterities glad : 240 

The Delian virgins are thy handmaids all, 

And, since they serv'd Apollo, jointly fall 

Before Latona, and Diana too, 

In sacred service, and do therefore know 

How to make mention of the ancient trims 245 

Of men and women, in their well-made hymns, 

And soften barbarous nations with their songs, 

Being able all to speak the several tongues 

Of foreign nations, and to imitate 

Their musics there, with art so fortunate 250 

That one would say, there every one did speak, 

And all their tunes in natural accents break, 

Their songs so well composed are, and their art 

To answer all sounds is of such desert. 

But come, Latona, and thou King of flames, 255 

With Phcebe, rect'ress of chaste thoughts in dames, 
Let me salute ye, and your graces call 
Hereafter to my just memorial. 

And you, Delian virgins, do me grace, 
When any stranger of our earthy race, 260 

Whose restless life affliction hath in chace, 
Shall hither come and question you, who is, 
To your chaste ears, of choicest faculties 



A HYMN TO APOLLO. 27 

In sacred poesy, and with most right 

Is author of your absolutist delight, 265 

Ye shall yourselves do all the right ye can 

To answer for our name : — u The sightless man 

Of stony Chios. All whose poems shall 

In all last ages stand for capital." 

This for your own sakes I desire, for I 270 

Will propagate mine own precedency 

As far as earth shall well-built cities bear, 

Or human conversation is held dear, 

2sot with my praise direct, but praises due, 

And men shall credit it, because 'tis true. 275 

However, I'll not cease the praise I vow 
To far-shot Phcebus with the silver bow, 
Whom lovelv-hair'd Latona o-ave the lio-ht. 
O King ! both Lycia is in rule thy right, 
Fair Mceony, and the maritimal 230 

Miletus, wislr d to be the seat of all. 

But chiefly Delos, girt with billows round, 
Thy most respected empire doth resound. 
Where thou to Pythus went'st, to answer there, 
As soon as thou wert born, the burning ear 
Of many a far-come, to hear future deeds, 
Clad in divine and odoriferous weeds, 
And with thy golden fescue play'dst upon 
Thy hollow harp, that sounds to heaven set gone. 

Then to Olympus swift as thought he flew, 290 

288 Fescue — the lexicographers give the derivation from the 
Latin festuca, a young shoot or stalk. It was generally used 
for a stick for pointing to the letters in teaching children to 
read. The word in this sense occurs in Dry den and Swift. 
Here it seems to be an instrument (the plectrum) with which 
Apollo touched the strings of his harp 5 a sense which does not 
seem to have been noted as occurring elsewhere. 



28 A ETMN TO APOLLO. 

To Jove's high house, and had a retinue 

Of Gods t' attend him ; and then straight did fall 

To study of the harp, and harpsical, 

All th 7 Immortals. To whom every Muse 

"With ravishing voices did their answers use, 295 

Singing th' eternal deeds of Deity, 

And from their hands what hells of misery 

Poor humans suffer, living desperate quite, 

And not an art they have, wit, or deceit, 

Can make them manage any act aright, soo 

Nor find, with all the soul they can engage, 

A salve for death, or remedy for age. 

But here the fair-hair' d Graces, the wise Hours, 
Harmonia, Hebe, and sweet Yenus' pow'rs, 
Danc'd, and each other's palm to palm did cling. soo 
And with these danc'd not a deformed tiling, 
Xo forespoke dwarf, nor downward witherling, 
Eut all with wond'rous goodly forms were deckt, 
And mov'd with beauties, of unpriz'd aspect. 

Dart-dear Diana, even with Phoebus bred, 310 

Danc'd likewise there ; and Mars a march did tread 
With that brave bevy. In whose consort fell 
Argicides, th' ingenious sentinel. 
Phoebus -Apollo touch' d his lute to them 
Sweetly and softly, a most glorious beam 315 

Casting about him, as he danc'd and play'd, 
And even his feet were all with rays array'd ; 
His weed and all of a most curious trim 
With no less lustre grac'd and circled him. 

By these Latona, with a hair that shin'd 320 

298 Humans — mortals. 

307 Forespoke— see Iliad, Bk. xvi. 792; xvil. 32. 



A ET3IX TO APOLLO. 29 

Like burnish'd gold, and, with tlie mighty mind, 
Heaven's counsellor, Jove, sat with delightsome eyes. 
To see their son new rank'd with Deities. 

How shall I praise thee, then, that art all praise ? 
Amongst the "brides shall I thy Deity raise ? 388 

Or being in love, when sad thou went'st to woo 
The virgin Aza, and didst overthrow 
The even-with-Gods, Elation's mighty seed, 
That had of goodly horse so brave a breed, 
And Phorbas, son of sovereign Trioptis, 330 

Valiant Leucippus, and Ereutheus, 
And Triopus himself with equal tall. 
Thou but on foot, and they on horseback all ? 

Or shall I sing thee, as thou first didst grace 
Earth with thy foot, to find thee forth a place 
Fit to pronounce thy oracles to men ? 
First from Olympus thou alightedst then 
Into Pieria, passing all the land 
Of fruitless Lesbos, chok'd with drifts of sand, 
The Magnets likewise, and the Perrha?bes ; 340 

And to Iolcus variedst thy access, 
Census' tops ascending, that their base 
Make bright Eubcea, being of ships the grace, 
And fix'd thy fail stand in Lelantus' field, 
That did not yet thy mind's contentment yield 345 

To raise a fane on, and a sacred grove. 
Passing Euripus then, thou mad'st remove 
Up to earth's ever-green and holiest hill. 
Yet swiftly thence, too, thou transcendedst still 
To Mycalessus, and didst touch upon 350 

Teumessus, apt to make green couches on. 
And flowery field-beds. Then thy progress found 



30 A HYMN TO APOLLO. 

Thebes out, whose soil with only woods was crown'd. 

For yet was sacred Thebes no human seat, 

And therefore were no paths nor highways beat 355 

On her free bosom, that flows now with wheat, 

But then she only wore on it a wood. 

From hence (even loth to part, because it stood 

Fit for thy service) thou putt'st on remove 

To green Onchestus, Neptune's glorious grove, 360 

TVliere new-tarn' d horse, bred, nourish nerves so rare 

That still they frolic, though they travell'd are 

Never so sore, and hurry after them 

Most heavy coaches, but are so extreme 

(In usual travel) fiery and free, 365 

That though their coachman ne'er so masterly 

Governs their courages, he sometimes must 

Forsake his seat, and give their spirits their lust, 

When after them their empty coach they draw, 

Foaming, and neighing, quite exempt from awe. 370 

And if their coachman guide through any grove 

Unshorn, and vow'd to any Deity's love, 

The lords encoach'd leap out, and all their care 

Use to allay their fires, with speaking fair 

Stroking and trimming them, and in some queach, 375 

Or strength of shade, within their nearest reach, 

Reining them up, invoke the deified King 

Of that unshorn and everlasting spring, 

And leave them then to her preserving hands, 

Who is the Fate that there the God commands. sso 

And this was first the sacred fashion there. 

From hence thou went'st, O thou in shafts past peer, 

375 Queach — bushy place. See note on Odyssey, Bk. xix. 
610. Hymn to Pan, 12. 



HYMN TO APOLLO. 31 

And found'st Cephissus with thy all-seeing beams. 

Whose flood affects so many silver stream 

And from Liheus pours so brigh: 

I ;>rth thy foot flew, and thy fair eyes gave 

The view of Ocale the rich in to^ 

Then to Amartus that abounds in flo" 

Then to Delphusa putt st thy progress on, 

Whose blessed soil nought harmful breeds upon ; 390 

And there thy pleasure would a fane adorn. 

And nourish woods whose shades should ne'er be shorn. 

Where this thou told'st her, standing to her d 

•• Delphusa. here I entertain su] ■• 

To build a far-fani'd temple, and ordain 

An oracle t' inform the minds of men, 

Who shall for ever offer to my love 

Whole hecatombs : even all the men that move 

In rich Peloponnesus, and all those 

v.: rope, and the isles the seas eno -100 

Whom future search of acts and beings brin_ 
To whom I'll prophesy the truths of thi;:_~ 
In that rich temple where my oracle sings." 

This said, the All-bounds-reaeher, with his bow. 
The fane's divine foundations did foresh 
Ample they were, and did huge length impart, 
With a continuate tenour, full of art. 
But when Delphusa look'd into his end, 
Her heart orrew ansn*v, and did thus extend 
Itself to Phoebus : ,; Phoebus, since thy mind 

: :r-fam'd fane hath in itself desiirn'd 
To bear an oracle to men in me, 
That hecatombs may put in fire to thee, 
This let me tell thee, and impose for b 



32 A HYMN TO APOLLO. 

Upon thy purpose : Th' inarticulate neigh 415 

Of fire-hov'd horse will ever disobey 

Thy numerous ear, and mules will for their drink 

Trouble my sacred springs, and I should think 

That any of the human race had rather 

See here the hurries of rich coaches gather, 420 

And hear the haughty neighs of swift-hov'd horse, 

Than in his pleasure's place convert recourse 

T'a mighty temple ; and his wealth bestow 

On pieties, where his sports may freely flow, 

Or see huge wealth that he shall never owe. 425 

And, therefore, wouldst thou hear my free advice, — 

Though mightier far thou art, and much more wise, 

O king, than I, thy pow'r being great'st of all 

In Crissa, underneath the bosom's fall 

Of steep Parnassus, — let thy mind be given 430 

To set thee up a fane, where never driven 

Shall glorious coaches be, nor horses' neighs 

Storm near thy well-built altars, but thy praise 

Let the fair race of pious humans bring 

Into thy fane, that Io-pseans sing, 435 

And those gifts only let thy deified mind 

Be circularly pleas'd with, being the kind 

And fair burnt-offerings that true Deities bind." 

With this his mind she altered, though she spake 

Xot for his good, but her own glory's sake. 440 

From hence, O Phoebus, first thou mad'st retreat, 
And of the Phlegians reached the walled seat, 
Inhabited with contumelious men, 
Who, slighting Jove, took up their dwellings then 
Within a large cave, near Cephissus' lake. 445 

425 Q we — own# Odyssey, Bk. 11. 190. 



A BTMN TO APOLLO. 33 

Hence, swiftly moving*, thou all speed didst make 

Up to the tops intended, and the ground 

Of Crissa, under the-with-snow-still-crown'd 

Parnassus, reach'd, whose face affects the West : 

Above which hangs a rock, that still seems prest 450 

To fall upon it, through whose breast doth run 

A rocky cave, near which the King the Sun 

Cast to contrive a temple to his mind, 

And said, u Xow here stands my conceit inclin'd 

To build a famous fane, where still shall be 65 

An oracle to men, that still to me 

Shall oifer absolute hecatombs, as well 

Those that in rich Peloponnesus dwell 

As those of Europe, and the isles that he 

"WalTd with the sea, that all their pains apply 460 

F employ my counsels. To all which will I 

True secrets tell, by way of prophecy, 

In my rich temple, that shall ever be 

An oracle to all poster: 

This said, the fane's form he did straight present, 465 

Ample, and of a length of great eitent ; 

In which Trophonius and Agamede, 

Who of Erginus \^re the famous seed, 

Imposed the stony 4 entry, and the heart 

Of every God Bad for their excellent art. 4:0 

About the temple dwelt of human name 
Unnumber'd nations, it acquired such fame, 
Being all of stone, built for eternal date. 
And near it did a fountain propagate 
A fair stream far away ; when Jove's bright seed, 475 
The King Apollo, with an arrow, freed 

450 Prest — ready. Frequently used in the Odyssey. 



34 A HT3IX TO APOLLO. 

1 the Dragoness 
That wonder nourished, being o: :ess 

In size, and horridness of monstrous shape, 
That on the forc'd earth she wrought many a rape, 4S0 
Many a spoil made on it, many an ill 
On crook-haunch'd herds brought, being impurpled still 
With blood of all sorts ; having undergone 
The charge of Juno, with the golden throne, 
To nourish Typhon, the abhorr'd affright 
And bane of mortals, whom into the light 
Saturnia brought forth, being incensed with J< 
Because the most renown'd fruit of his lore 
(Pallas) he got, and shook out of his brain. 

: which majestic Juno did complain tan 

In this kind to the BlessM Court of the skies : 
u Know all ye sex-distiiiguislrd Dei:i~ . 
That Jove, assembler of the cloudy throng, 
Begins with me first, and affects with wrong 
My right in him, made by himself his wife, 
That knows and does the honoured marriage life 
All honest offices ; and yet hath he 
Unduly got, without my company, 
Blue-eyed Minerva, who of all the sky 
Of blest Immortals is the absolute gr:. i*oo 

Where I have brought into the Heavenly Kaee 
A son, both taken in his feet and head, 
So ugly, and so far from worth my bed, - 
That, ravish'd into hand, I took and threw 
Down to the vast sea his detested vi-r 505 

Where Xereus' daught^: a, who her 

With silver feet makes, and the fair array 
Of her brigL 1, and took to guard. 



A HYMN TO APOLLO. 35 

But, would to heaven, another yet were spared 

The like grace of his godhead ! Crafty mate, 510 

"What other scape canst thou excogitate ? 

How could thy heart sustain to get alone 

The grey-eyed Goddess ? Her conception 

Nor bringing forth had any hand of mine, 

And yet, know all the Gods, I go for thine 515 

To such kind uses. But I'll now employ 

My brain to procreate a masculine joy, 

That 'mongst th' Immortals may as eminent shine, 

With shame affecting nor my bed nor thine. 

Nor will I ever touch at thine again, 520 

But far fly it and thee ; and yet will reign 

Amongst th' Immortals ever." This spleen spent 

(Still yet left angry) far away she went 

From all the Deathless, and yet pray'd to all, 

Advanced her hand, and, ere she let it fall, 525 

Used these excitements : " Hear me now, O Earth ! 

Broad Heaven above it, and beneath, your birth, 

The deified Titanois, that dwell about 

Vast Tartarus, from whence sprung all the rout 

Of Men and Deities ! Hear me all, I say, 530 

With all your forces, and give instant way 

T' a son of mine without Jove, who yet may 

Nothing inferior prove in force to him, 

But past him spring as far in able limb 

As he past Saturn." This pronounced, she strook 535 

Life-bearing Earth so strongly, that she shook 

Beneath her numb'd hand. Which when she beheld, 

Her bosom with abundant comforts swell'd, 

In hope all should to her desire extend. 

Erom hence the year, that all such proofs gives end, 



36 A HYMN TO APOLLO. 

Grew round ; yet all that time the bed of Jove 541 

She never touch'd at, never was her love 

Enflam'd to sit near his Daedalian throne, 

As she accustomed, to consult upon 

Counsels kept dark with many a secret skill, 545 

But kept her vow-frequented temple still, 

Pleas' d with her sacrifice ; till now, the nights 

And days accomplish'd, and the year's whole rights 

In all her revolutions being expired, 

The hours and all run out that were required 550 

To vent a birth-right, she brought forth a son, 

Like Gods or men in no condition, 

But a most dreadful and pernicious thing, 

Call'd Typhon, who on all the human spring 

Conferr'd confusion. Which received to hand 555 

By Juno, instantly she gave command 

(111 to ill adding) that the Dragoness 

Should bring it up ; who took, and did oppress 

With many a misery (to maintain th' excess 

Of that inhuman monster) all the race 560 

Of men that were of all the world the grace, 

Till the far- working Phoebus at her sent 

A fiery arrow, that invoked event 

Of death gave to her execrable life. 

Before which yet she lay in bitter strife, 565 

With dying pains, grovelling on earth, and drew 

Extreme short respirations ; for which flew 

A shout about the air, whence no man knew, 

But came by power divine. And then she lay 

Tumbling her trunk, and winding every way 570 

543 Daedalian — variegated, 7ro\vda'ida\ov. 
654 Spring — race. 



A HYMN TO APOLLO. 37 

About her nasty nest, quite leaving then 

Her murderous life, embrued with deaths of men. 

Then Phoebus gloried, saying : " Thyself now lie 
On men-sustaining earth, and putrefy. 
Who first of putrefaction was inforni'd. 575 

Now on thy life have death's cold vapours storm'd, 
That storm'dst on men the earth-fed so much death, 
In envy of the offspring they made breathe 
Their lives out on my altars. Xow from thee 
Not Typhon shall enforce the misery 5so 

Of merited death, nor She, whose name implies 
Such scathe (Chimsera), but black Earth make prise 
To putrefaction thy immanities, 
And bright Hyperion, that light all eyes shows, 
Thine with a night of rottenness shall close." 585 

Thus spake he glorying. And then seiz'd upon 
Her horrid heap, with putrefaction, 
Hyperion's lovely pow'rs ; from whence her name 
Took sound of Python, and heaven's Sovereign Flame 
Was surnam'd Pythius, since the sharp-eyed Sun 590 
Affected so witli putrefaction 
The hellish monster. And now Phoebus' mind 
Gave him to know that falsehood had strook blind 
Even his bright eye, because it could not find 
The subtle Fountain's fraud ; to whom he flew, 595 

Enflamed with anger, and in th' instant drew 
Close to Delphusa, using this short vow : 

u Delphusa ! You must look no longer now 
To vent your frauds on me ; for well I know 
Your situation to be lovely, worth 600 

A temple's imposition, it pours forth 

575 Informed — made, formed out of. A common word. 



A HT3IX TO APOLLO. 

So defied :n. But year renown 

Shall now no longer shine here, bur mine own." 

This said, he thrust her promontory down. 

And daniru'd her fountain up with niighn 605 

A temple giving c mfl 

In woods adjoining. And in this fane all 

On him. bv surname of Delphusius. call, 

Because Detphosa's sacred flood and fame 

His wrath afi\ and hid in shame. 610 

And then thought Phoebus wh: : of men 

To be his ministers he should retain. 
To do in stony Pytl - 
To which his mind contending, his quick eyes 

ud beheld 615 

A ship, on whose m la that win_ 

In which were m-: rr d, many and good, 

That in Minoian Cncssus ate their food, 
And were C who now are tih 

That all the sacrificing dues dispose, BJO 

And all the laws deliver to a word 
Oi Day's great King, that wears the golden sword. 
And it of his Delphian tree 

That shrouds her fair arms in the cavity 
Beneath Parnassus* mount) pronounce to men. G8S 

These now his | is merchants then, 

In traffics and pecuniar;, rates, 

sandy Pylos and the Pylian si 
Wen under -ail. But now encounter d them 
Phoebus- Apollo, who into the stream 630 

himself headlong, and the strange 
k of a dolphin of a goodly si. 
Like which he leaped into their ship, and lay 



A HYMN TO APOLLO. 39 

As an ostent of infinite dismay. 

For none with any strife of mind eonld look 635 

Into the omen, all the ship -masts shook, 

And silent all sat with the fear they took, 

Arm'd not, nor strook they sail, hut as before 

Went on with full trim, and a foreright blore, 

Stiff, and from forth the south, the ship made fly. 6-40 

When first they stripped the Malean proniont'ry. 

Touched at Laconia's soil, in which a town 

Their ship arrived at, that the sea doth crown, 

Called Tenarus, a place of much delight 

To men that serve Heaven's Comforter of sight. 645 

In which are fed the famous flocks that hear 

The wealthy fleeces, on a delicate lair 

Being fed and seated. Where the merchants fain 

Would have put in, that they might out again 

To tell the miracle that chanced to them, 650 

And try if it would take the sacred stream, 

Rushing far forth, that he again might hear 

Those other fishes that abounded there 

Delightsome company, or still would stay 

Aboard their dry ship. But it fail'd t' obey, 655 

And for the rich Peloponnesian shore 

Steer' d her free sail ; Apollo made the blore 

Directly guide it. That obeying still 

Reach'd dry Arena, and (what wish doth fill) 

Fair Argyphaea, and the populous height 660 

Of Thryus, whose stream, siding her, doth wait 

639 Blore— gale. 
641 Stripped — passed rapidly. 

645 Heaven's Comforter of sight — the Sun ; TepipifiPporov 
rjekioio. 
655 ItfaiVd V obey—i. e. the ship would not obey the rudder. 



40 A EYMS TO APOLLO. 

With safe pass on Alpha?us. Pylos* sands. 

And Pylian dwellers : keeping by the strands 

On which th* inhabitants of Crunins dwell, 

And Helida set opposite to hell ; ns 

Chalcis and D ynies reach'd. and happily 

Hade sail by Pheras ; all being over 

With that frank gale that Jore himself employed. 

And then amongst the clouds they might descry 

The hill, that far-seen Ithaca calls h 

DuKchius, Sanios, and, with timber graced, 

Shady Zacynthus. But when now they past 

Peloponnesus all, and then when showd 

The infinite Tale of Crissa, that doth shroud 

All rich Morea with her liberal bre^ K5 

S: :::.::k ji »ilf ym-i £v" :: ;: :lr VT t , : 

As all the sky discoTerd; 'twas so great. 

And blew so from the Tery council seat 

Of JoTe himself, that Quickly it might send 

The ship through full seas to her journey's end. 

From thence they sail'd, Quite opposite, to the East, 
And to the region where Light leaves his rest. 
The light himself being sacred pilot there. 
And made the sea-trod ship arrive them near 
The grapeful Crissa, where he rest doth take 
dose to her port and sands. And then forth brake 
The far-shot King, like to a star that strows 

That all in sparkles did his state attire, 
Whose lustre leap'd up to the sphere of fire. 

II, ::. " •■-■:-.-::-: n: ■■".•;■- :; -■■'.. in.: lir::-: :Lv i..v;-e 
That of his sacred tripods held the grace, 
*• Arrim — L e. cause to arrire. 



A HT1IX TO APOLLO. 41 

In which he lighted such a fluent flame 

_ilt all Crissa : in which every dame. 
And dame's fair daughter, cast out vehement cries 695 
At those fell fires of Phoebus* prodig: 
That shaking fears through all their fancies tin 
Then, like the mind's swift light, again he flew 
Back to the ship, shaped like a youth in height 

all his graces, shoulders broad and straight. 700 

And all his hair in golden curls enwrapp'd : 
And to the merchants thus his speech he shapd : 

"Ho ! Strangers ! What are vou? And from wha: i 
Sail ye til - rhat salt and water sweat ? 

To traffic justly ? Or use vagrant scapes 705 

Void of all rule, conferring wrongs and i\v 
Like pirates, on the men ye ne 
With minds project exempt from list or law ? 
Why sit ye here so stupefied, nor take 
Land while ye may. nor deposition make 710 

Of naval arms, when this the fashion is 
Of men industrious, who (their faciL' 
Wearied at sea ) leave ship, and use the land 
For food, that with their healths and stomachs stand?" 

This said, with bold minds he their breast supplied. 
And thus made answer the Cretensian guide : 
1 anger ! Because you seem to us no - 
Of any mortal, but celestial breed 
For parts and person, joy your steps ensue. 
And Gods make orood the bliss we think vour due. 
Vouchsafe us true relation, on what land 
We here arrive, and what men here command. 
We were for well-known parts bound, and from Crete 
(Our vaunted country) to the Pylian 1 



42 A ETMX TO APOLLO. 

Vow'd our whole voyage : yet arrive we here. 735 

Quite cross to those wills that our motions steer. 

"\\ idling to make return some other way, 

Some other course desirous to assay. 

To pay our lost pains. But some God hath fill'd 

Our frustrate sails, defeating what we will'd." :;:o 

Apollo answer'd : M Strangers ! Though before 
Ye dwelt in woody Cnossus. yet no more 
"i e must be made jour own reciprocals 
To your loved city and fair severals 
Of wives and houses, but ye shall have here 7S5 

My wealthy temple, honour'd far and near 
Of many a nation : for myself am son 
To Jove himself, and of Apollo won 
The glorious title, who thus safely through 
The sea's vast billows still have held your plough. 740 
Xo ill intending, that will let ye make 
My temple here your own, and honours take 
Upon yourselves, all that to me are given. 
And more, the counsels of the King of Heaven 
Yourselves shall know, and with his will receive ;4o 
Ever the honours that all men shall give, 
Do as I say then instantly, strike sail, 
Take down your tackling, and your vessel hale 
Up into land ; your goods bring forth, and all 
The instruments that into sailing fall ; 750 

Make on this shore an altar, fire enflame. 
And barley white cakes offer to my name ; 
And then, environing the altar, pray. 
And call me (as ye saw me in the day 
When from the windy seas I brake swift way 755 

Into your ship) Delphinius, since I took 



A HYlfX TO APOLLO. 43 

A dolphin's form then. And to every look 

That there shall seek it. that mv altar shall 

Be made a Delphian memorial 

Prom thence for ever. After this, ascend 760 

Yonr swift black ship and sup, and then intend 

Ingenuous offerings to the equal Gods 

That in celestial seats make blest abodes. 

"When, having stay'd your healthful hunger's sting. 

Come all with me, and Io-pnana sing 7^5 

All the way's length, till you attain the state 

Where I your opulent fane have consecrate.*' 

To this they gave him passing diligent ear, 
And vow'd to his obedience all they were. 

First, striking sail, their tacklings then theylosed, 770 
And (with their gables stoop'd) their mast imposed 
Into the mast -room. Forth themselves then went, 
And from the sea into the continent 
Drew up their ship ; which far up from the sand 
They rais'd with ample rafters. Then in hand m 

They took the altar, and in form \1 it on 
The sea's near shore, imposing thereupon 
White cakes of barley, lire made, and did stand 
About it round, as Phoebus gave command, 
Submitting invocations to his will. 750 

Then sacrihVd to all the heavenly hill 
Of powerful Godheads. After winch they eat 
Aboard their ship, till with lit food replete 
They rose, nor to their temple used delay. 
Whom Phoebus usher d, and touch'd all the way 7S5 

761 Intend— See Odyssey, Bk. 111. 648. 

' 79 Informed — supra, 575. 

763 Food— the folio and Mr. Singer, foot. 



44 A HYMN TO APOLLO. 

His heavenly lute with art above admired, 

Gracefully leading them. When all were fired 

With zeal to him, and followed wond'ring all 

To Pythos ; and upon his name did call 

With Io-pseans, such as Cretans use. 790 

And in their bosoms did the deified Muse 

Voices of honey-harmony infuse. 

With never- weary feet their way they went, 
And made with all alacrity ascent 
Up to Parnassus, and that long'd-for place 795 

Where they should live, and be of men the grace. 
When, all the way, Apollo show'd them still 
Their far-stretch' d valleys, and their two-topp'd hill, 
Their famous fane, and all that all could raise 
To a supreme height of their joy and praise. soo 

And then the Cretan captain thus inquired 
Of King Apollo : " Since you have retired, 
O sovereign, our sad lives so far from friends 
And native soil (because so far extends 
Your dear mind's pleasure) tell us how we shall 805 
Live in your service ? To which question call 
Our provident minds, because we see not crown'd 
This soil with store of vines, nor doth abound 
In wealthy meadows, on which we may live, 
As well as on men our attendance give." 8io 

He smiled, and said : " O men that nothing know, 
And so are follow'd with a world of woe, 
That needs will succour care and curious moan, 
And pour out sighs without cessation, 
Were all the riches of the earth your own ! 815 

Without much business, I will render known 
802 Eetired — i. e. caused to retire. 



A HYMN TO APOLLO. 45 

To your simplicities an easy way 

To wealth enough : Let every man purvey 

A skeane, or slaughtering steel, and his right hand, 

Bravely bestowing, evermore see mann'd S20 

With killing sheep, that to my fane will flow 

From all far nations. On all which bestow 

Good observation, and all else they give 

To me make you your own all, and so live. 

For all which watch before my temple well, 825 

And all my counsels, above all, conceal. 

If any give vain language, or to deeds, 

Yea or as far as injury, proceeds, 

Know that, at losers' hands, for those that gain, 

It is the law of mortals to sustain. 830 

Besides, ye shall have princes to obey, 

"Which still ye must, and (so ye gain) ye may. 

All now is said ; give all thy memory's stay." 

And thus to thee, Jove and Latona's son, 
Be given all grace of salutation ! S35 

Both thee and others of th' Immortal State 
My song shall memorize to endless date. 

819 Skeane — generally used as a sword. A Celtic word. See 
Nares. 



THE EXD OF THE HYMN TO APOLLO. 




A HYMN TO HEKMES. 

■ EBMES, the son of Jove and Maia, sing, 
O Muse, th' Arcadian and C jllenian king, 
They rich in flocks, he heaven enriching 
still 

In messages returned with all his will. 
Whom glorious Maia, the nymph rich in hair, 5 

Mixing with Jove in amorous affair, 
Brought forth to him, sustaining a retreat 
From all th' Immortals of the blessed seat, 
And living in the same dark cave, where Jove 
Informed at midnight the effect of love, 10 

Unknown to either man or Deity, 
Sweet sleep once having seized the jealous eye 
Of Juno deck'd with wrists of ivory. 
But when great Jove's high mind was consummate, 
The tenth month had in heaven confined the date 15 
Of Maia's labour, and into the sight 
She brought in one birth labours infinite ; 
For then she bore a son, that all tried ways 
Could turn and wind to wish'd events assays, 
A fair tongu'd, but false-hearted, counsellor, 20 

Hector of ox-stealers, and for all stealths bore 
10 Inform d — Hymn to Apollo, 575. 



A HYMN TO HERMES. 47 

A varied finger ; speeder of night's spies, 

And guide of all her dreams' obscurities ; 

Guard of door-guardians ; and was born to be, 

Amongst th' Immortals, that wing'd Deity 25 

That in an instant should do acts would ask 

The powers of others an eternal task. 

Born in the morn, he form'd his lute at noon, 

At night stole all the oxen of the Sun ; 

And all this in his birth's first day was done, 30 

Which was the fourth of the increasing moon. 

Because celestial limbs sustain'd his strains, 

His sacred swath-bands must not be his chains, 

So, starting up, to Phoebus' herd he stept, 

Foundstraight the high-roof 'd cave where they werekept, 

And th' entry passing, he th' invention found 36 

Of making lutes ; and did in wealth abound 

By that invention, since he first of all 

Was author of that engine musical, 

By this means moved to the ingenious work : 40 

Near the cave's inmost overture did lurk 

A tortoise, tasting th' odoriferous grass, 

Leisurely moving ; and this object was 

The motive to Jove's son (who could convert 

To profitablest uses all desert 45 

That nature had in any work convey'd) 

To form the lute ; when, smiling, thus he said : 

" Thou mov'st in me a note of excellent use, 

Which thy ill form shall never so seduce 

T' avert the good to be inform'd by it, 50 

In pliant force, of my form-forging wit." 

Then the slow tortoise, wrought on by his mind, 
41 Overture — hidden recess. 



48 A HYMN TO HERMES. 

He thus saluted : "All joy to the kind 
Instinct of nature in thee, born to be 
The spiriter of dances, company 55 

For feasts, and following banquets, graced and blest 
For bearing light to all the interest 
Claim'd in this instrument ! From whence shall spring 
Play fair and sweet, to which may Graces sing. 
A pretty painted coat thou putt'st on here, 60 

O Tortoise, while thy ill-bred vital sphere 
Confines thy fashion ; but, surprised by me, 
I'll bear thee home, where thou shalt ever be 
A profit to me ; and yet nothing more 
Will I contemn thee in my merited store. 65 

Goods with good parts got worth and honour gave, 
Left goods and honours every fool may have, 
And since thou first shalt give me means to live, 
I'll love thee ever. Virtuous qualities give 
To live at home with them enough content, 70 

Where those that want such inward ornament 
Fly out for outward, their life made their load. 
'Tis best to be at home, harm lurks abroad. 
And certainly thy virtue shall be known, 
'Gainst great-ill-causing incantation 75 

To serve as for a lance or amulet. 
And where, in comfort of thy vital heat, 
Thou now breath' st but a sound confus'd for song, 
Expos'd by nature, after death, more strong 
Thou shalt in sounds of art be, and command so 

Song infinite sweeter." Thus with either hand 
He took it up, and instantly took flight 
Back to his cave with that his home delight. 
Where (giving to the mountain tortoise vents 
84 A Chapmannic periphrasis for killing the tortoise. 



A HYMN TO HERMES. 49 

Of life and motion) with fit instruments 85 

Forged of bright steel he straight inform'd a lute, 

Put neck and frets to it, of which a suit 

He made of splitted quills, in equal space 

Impos'd upon the neck, and did embrace 

Both back and bosom. At whose height (as gins 90 

T' extend and ease the strings) he put in pins. 

Seven strings of several tunes he then applied, 

Made of the entrails of a sheep well-dried, 

And throughly twisted. Next he did provide 

A case for all, made of an ox's hide, 95 

Out of his counsels to preserve as well 

As to create. And all this action fell 

Into an instant consequence. His word 

And work had individual accord, 

All being as swiftly to perfection brought 100 

As any worldly man's most ravish'd thought, 

Whose mind care cuts in an infinity 

Of varied parts or passions instantly, 

Or as the frequent twinklings of an eye. 

And thus his house-delight given absolute end, 105 
He touch'd it, and did every string extend 
(With an exploratory spirit assayed) 
To all the parts that could on it be play'd. 
It sounded dreadfully ; to which he sung, 
As if from thence the first and true force sprung 110 
That fashions virtue. God in him did sing. 
His play was likewise an unspeakable thing, 
Yet, but as an extemporal assay, 
Of what show it would make being the first way, 
It tried his hand ; or a tumultuous noise, 115 

Such as at feasts the first-flower d spirits of boys 

E 



50 A RTMN TO HER31ES. 

Pour out in mutual contumelies still, 

As little squaring with his curious will, 

Or was as wanton and untaught a store. 

Of Jove, and Maia that rich shoes still wore, 120 

He sung ; who suffer' d ill reports before, 

And foul stains under her fair titles bore. 

But Hermes sung her nation, and her name 

Did iterate ever ; all her high-flown fame 

Of being Jove's mistress ; celebrating all 125 

Her train of servants, and collateral 

Sumpture of houses ; all her tripods there, 

And caldrons huge, increasing every year. 

All which she knew, yet felt her knowledge stung 

"With her fame's loss, which (found) she more wish'd sung. 

But now he in his sacred cradle laid 131 

His lute so absolute, and straight convey'd 

Himself up to a watch -tow'r forth his house, 

Eich, and divinely odoriferous, 

A lofty wile at work in his conceit, 135 

Thirsting the practice of his empire's height. 

And where impostors rule (since sable night 

Must serve their deeds) he did his deeds their right. 

For now the never-resting Sun was turn'd 

For th' under earth, and in the ocean burn'd ho 

His coach and coursers ; when th' ingenious spy 

Pieria's shady hill had in his eye, 

Where the immortal oxen of the Gods 

In air's flood solaced then select abodes, 

And earth's sweet green flow'r, that was never shorn. 

Fed ever down. And these the witty-born, ut 

Argicides, set serious spy upon, 

Severing from all the rest, and setting gone 



A HYMN TO HERMES. 51 

Full fifty of the violent bellowers. 

AYhicli driving through the sands, he did reverse 150 

(His birth's-craft straight rememVring) all their hoves, 

And them transpos'd in opposite removes, 

The fore behind set, the behind before, 

T' employ the eyes of such as should explore. 

And he himself, as sly-pac ? d, cast away 155 

His sandals on the sea sands ; past display 

And unexcogitable thoughts in act 

Putting, to shun of his stol'n steps the tract, 

Mixing both tamrisk and like-tamrisk sprays 

In a most rare confusion, to raise 160 

His footsteps up from earth. Of which sprays he 

(His armful gathering fresh from off the tree) 

Made for his sandals ties, both leaves and ties 

Holding together ; and then fear d no eves 

That could affect his feet's discoveries. 166 

The tamrisk boughs he gathered, making way 
Back from Pieria, but as to convey 
Provision in them for his journey fit, 
It being long and. therefore, needing it. 

An old man, now at labour near the field no 

Of green Onchestus, knew the verdant yield 
Of his fair arniful ; whom th' ingenious son 
Of Maia, therefore, salutation 
Did thus begin to : " Ho, old man ! that now 
Art crooked grown with making plants to grow, 175 

Thy nerves will far be spent, when these boughs shall 
To these then' leaves confer me fruit and all. 
But see not thou whatever thou dost see, 
Nor hear though hear, but all as touching me 
Conceal, since nought it can endamage thee." iso 



52 A HYMN TO HERMES. 

This, and no more, lie said, and on drave still 
His broad-brow'd oxen. Many a shady hill, 
And many an echoing valley, many a field 
Pleasant and wishful, did his passage yield 
Their safe transcension. But now the divine iso 

And black-brow' d Night, his mistress, did decline 
Exceeding swiftly ; Day's most early light 
Fast hasting to her first point, to excite 
Worldlings to work ; and in her watck-tow'r shone 
King Pallas-Megamedes' seed (the Moon) ; 190 

When through th' Alphaean flood Jove's powerful son 
Phoebus-Apollo's ample-foreheaded herd 
(Whose necks the lab'ring yoke had never sphered) 
Drave swiftly on ; and then into a stall 
(Hilly, yet pass'd to through an humble vale 105 

And hollow dells, in a most lovely mead) 
He gather'd all, and them divinely fed 
With odorous cypress, and the ravishing tree 
That makes his eaters lose the memory 
Of name and country. Then he brought withal aoo 
Much wood, whose sight into his search let fall 
The art of making fire ; winch thus he tried : 
He took a branch of laurel, amplified 
Past others both in beauty and in size, 
Yet lay next hand, rubb'd it, and straight did rise 205 
A warm fume from it ; steel being that did raise 
(As agent) the attenuated bays 
To that hot vapour. So that Hermes found 
Both fire first, and of it the seed close bound 
In other substances ; and then the seed 210 

He multiplied, of sere-wood making feed 
198 The lotus. 



A HYMN TO HERMES, 53 

The apt heat of it, in a pile combined 

Laid in a low pit, that in flames straight shined, 

And cast a sparkling crack up to the sky, 

All the dry parts so fervent were, and high 215 

In their combustion. And how long the force 

Of glorious Vulcan kept the fire in course, 

So long was he in dragging from their stall 

Two of the crook-haunch'd herd, that roar'd withal, 

And raged for fear, t' approach the sacred fire, 220 

To which did all his dreadful pow'rs aspire. 

When, blust'ring forth their breath, he on the soil 

Cast both at length, though with a world of toil, 

For long he was in getting them to ground 

After their through-thrust and most mortal wound. 225 

But work to work he join'd, the flesh and cut, 

Cover'd with fat, and, on treen broches put, 

In pieces roasted ; but in th' intestines 

The black blood, and the honorary chines, 

Together with the carcases, lay there, 230 

Caot on the cold earth, as no Deities' cheer ; 

The hides upon a rugged rock he spread. 

And thus were these now all in pieces shred, 

And undistinguish'd from earth's common herd, 

Though born for long date, and to heaven endear'd, 235 

And now must ever live in dead event. 

But Hermes, here hence having his content, 

Cared for no more, but drew to places even 

The fat- works, that, of force, must have for heaven 

Their capital ends, though storn, and therefore were 210 

In twelve parts cut, for twelve choice Deities' cheer, 

By this devotion. To all which he gave 

227 Treen hroches — branches of trees. 



54 A HYMN TO HERMES. 

Their several honours, and did wish to have 

His equal part thereof, as free and well 

As tli' other Deities ; but the fatty smell 215 

Afflicted him, though he Immortal were, 

Playing mortal parts, and being like mortals here. 

Yet his proud mind nothing the more obey'd 

For being a God himself, and his own aid 

Having to cause his due, and though in heart 250 

He highly wish'd it ; but the weaker part 

Subdued the stronger, and went on in ill. 

Even heavenly pow'r had rather have his will 

Than have his right ; and will's the worst of all, 

When but in least sort it is criminal, 255 

One taint being author of a number still. 

And thus, resolved to leave his hallow'd hill, 

First both the fat parts and the fleshy all 

Taking away, at the steep -entried stall 

He laid all, all the feet and heads entire, 260 

And all the sere-wood, making clear with fire. 

And now, he leaving there then all things done, 

And finish' d in their fit perfection, 

The coals put out, and their black ashes thrown 

From all discovery by the lovely light 265 

The cheerful moon cast, shining all the night, 

He straight assumed a novel voice's note, 

And in the whirl -pit- eating flood afloat 

He set his sandals. When now, once again 

The that-morn-born Cyllenius did attain 270 

His home's divine height ; all the far-stretch'd way 

No one bless'd God encount'ring his assay, 

Nor mortal man ; nor any dog durst spend 

His born-to-bark mouth at him ; till in th' end 



A HYMN TO HERMES. 55 

He reach' d his cave, and at the gate went in 275 

Crooked, and wrapt into a fold so thin 

That no eye could discover his repair, 

But as a darkness of th' autumnal air. 

When, going on fore-right, he straight arrived 

At his rich fane ; his soft feet quite deprived 2so 

Of all least noise of one that trod the earth, 

They trod so swift to reach his room of birth. 

Where, in his swath-bands he his shoulders wrapt, 

And (like an infant, newly having scap't 

The teeming straits) as in the palms he lay 235 

Of his loved nurse. Yet instantly would play 

(Freeing his right hand) with his bearing cloth 

About his knees wrapt, and straight (loosing both 

His right and left hand) with his left he caught 

His most-loved lute. His mother yet was taught 290 

His wanton wiles, nor could a God's wit lie 

Hid from a Goddess, who did therefore try 

His answer thus : " Why, thou made-all-of-sleight, 

And whence arriv'st thou in this rest of night ? 

Improvident impudent ! In my conceit 295 

Thou* rather shouldst be getting forth thy gate, 

With all flight fit for thy endanger'd state, 

(In merit of th' inevitable bands 

To be impos'd by vex'd Latona's hands, 

Justly incens'd for her Apollo's harms) 300 

Than lie thus wrapt, as ready for her arms, 

To take thee up and kiss thee. Would to heaven, 

In cross of that high grace, thou hadst been given 

Up to perdition, ere poor mortals bear 

Those black banes, that thy Father Thunderer 305 

Hath planted thee of purpose to confer 



5(5 A HYMN TO HERMES. 

On them and Deities !" He returned reply : 
u As master of the feats of policy, 
Mother, why aim you thus amiss at me, 
As if I were a son that infancy 3io 

Could keep from all the skill that age can teach, 
Or had in cheating but a childish reach, 
And of a mother's mandates fear'd the breach ? 
I mount that art at first, that will be best 
"When all times consummate their cunningest, 315 

Able to counsel now myself and thee, 
In all things best, to all eternity. 
We cannot live like Gods here without gifts, 
No, nor without corruption and shifts, 
And, much less, without eating ; as we must 320 

In keeping thy rules, and in being just, 
Of which we cannot undergo the loads. 
'Tis better here to imitate the Gods, 
And wine or wench out all time's periods, 
To that end growing rich in ready heaps, 325 

Stored with revenues, being in corn-field reaps 
Of infinite acres, than to live enclosed 
In caves, to all earth's sweetest air exposed. 
I as much honour hold as Phoebus does ; 
And if my Father please not to dispose 330 

Possessions to me, I myself will see 
If I can force them in ; for I can be 
Prince of all thieves. And, if Latona's son 
Make after my stealth indignation, 
I'll have a scape as well as he a search, 335 

And overtake him with a greater lurch ; 
For I can post to Pythos, and break through 
336 Lurch— deceit, falsehood. 



A HYMN TO HERMES. 57 

His huge house there, where harbours wealth enough, 
Most precious tripods, caldrons, steel, and gold, 
Garments rich wrought, and full of liberal fold. 3i0 

All which will I at pleasure own, and thou 
Shalt see all, wilt thou but thy sight bestow." 

Thus changed great words the Goat-hide- wearer's son, 
And Maia of majestic fashion. 

And now the air-begot Aurora rose 34.5 

From out the Ocean great-in-ebbs-and-flows, 
When, at the never-shorn pure-and-fair grove 
(Onchestus) consecrated to the love 
Of round-and-long-neck'd Neptune, Phoebus found 
A man whom heavy years had press'd half round, s^o 
And yet at work in plashing of a fence 
About a vineyard, that had residence 
Hard by the highway ; whom Latona's son 
Made it not strange, but first did question, 
And first saluted : " Ho you ! aged sire, 355 

That here are hewing from the vine the briar, 
For certain oxen I come here t' inquire 
Out of Pieria ; females all, and rear'd 
All with horns wreath'd, unlike the common herd ; 
A coal-black bull fed by them all alone ; soo 

And all observ'd, for preservation, 
Through all their foody and delicious fen 
With four fierce mastiffs, like one-minded men. 
These left their dogs and bull (which I admire) 
And, when was near set day's eternal fire, 365 

343 Goat-hide-wearer — Jupiter. 

351 Plashing — to plash a fence is still used for half-cutting 
down the saplings and loftier branches of a hedge, and entwin- 
ing them horizontally. 

364 Which I admire— which I am astonished at. 



58 A HYMN TO HERMES. 

From their fierce guardians, from their delicate fare, 
Made clear departure. To me then declare, 

old man, long since horn, if thy grave ray 
Hath any man seen making stealthful way 

With all those oxen." Th' old man made reply : 370 
" 'Tis hard, O friend, to render readily 
Account of all that may invade mine eye, 
For many a traveller this highway treads, 
Some in much ills search, some in nohle threads, 
Leading their lives out ; but I this young day, 375 

Even from her first point, have made good display 
Of all men passing this abundant hill 
Planted with vines, and no such stealthful ill 
Her light hath shown me ; but last evening, late, 

1 saw a thing that show'd of childish state 3so 
To my old lights, and seem'd as he pursued 

A herd of oxen with brave heads endued, 
Yet but an infant, and retain'd a rod ; 
Who wearily both this and that way trod, 
His head still backwards turn'd." Tins th' old man spake ; 
"Which he well thought upon, and swiftly brake 386 
Into his pursuit with abundant wing, 
That strook but one plain, ere he knew the thing 
That was the thief to be th' impostor born; 
WTiom Jove yet with his son's name did adorn. 390 
In study and with ardour then the King 
(Jove's dazzling son) placed his exploring wing 
On sacred Pylos, for his forced herd, 
His ample shoulders in a cloud enspher'd 
Of fiery crimson. Straight the steps he found 395 

Of his stol'n herd, and said : " Strange sights confound 
368 Ray — vision, eye. 



A ETMN TO HERMES. 59 

My apprehensive powers, for here I see 

The tracks of oxen, but aversively 

Converted towards the Pierian hills, 

As treading to their mead of daffodils ; 400 

But nor mine eye men's feet nor women's draws, 

Nor hoary wolves', nor bears', nor lions', paws, 

Nor thick-neck'd bulls, they show. But he that does 

These monstrous deeds, with never so swift shoes 

Hath pass'd from that hour hither, but from hence 405 

His foul course may meet fouler consequence." 

With this took Phoebus wing ; and Hermes still, 

For all his threats, secure lay in his hill 

Wall'd with a wood ; and more, a rock, beside, 

TVhere a retreat ran, deeply multiplied 410 

In blinding shadows, and where tlr endless Bride 

Bore to Saturnius his ingenious son ; 

An odour, worth a heart's desire, being thrown 

Along the heaven-sweet hill, on whose herb fed 

Eich flocks of sheep, that bow not where they tread 415 

Their horny pasterns. There the Light of men 

(Jove's son. Apollo) straight descended then 

The marble pavement, in that gloomy den. 

On whom when Jove and Maia's son set eye, 

"Wroth for his oxen, on then, instantly, 420 

His odorous swath-bands flew ; in which as close 

Th' impostor lay. as in the cool repose 

Of cast-on ashes hearths of burning coals 

Lie in the woods hid, under the controls 

Of skilful colliers ; even so close did lie 425 

Inscrutable Hermes in Apollo's eye, 

Contracting his great Godhead to a small 

411 Endless — immortal, iij-icrj dn^pcuij]. 



60 A HYMN TO HERMES. 

And infant likeness, feet, hands, head, and all. 
And as a hunter hath been often view'd, 
From chase retired, with both his hands embrued 430 
In his game's blood, that doth for water call 
To cleanse his hands, and to provoke withal 
Delightsome sleep, new-wash' d and laid to rest ; 
So now lay Hermes in the close-compress'd 
Chace of his oxen, his new-found-out lute 435 

Beneath his arm held, as if no pursuit 
But that prise, and the virtue of his play, 
His heart affected. But to Phoebus lay 
His close heart open ; and he likewise knew 
The brave hill-nymph there, and her dear son, new- 
Born, and as well wrapt in his wiles as weeds. 441 
All the close shrouds too, for his rapinous deeds, 
In all the cave he knew ; and with his key 
He open'd three of them, in which there lay 
Silver and gold -heaps, nectar infinite store, 445 
And dear ambrosia ; and of weeds she wore, 
Pure white and purple, a rich wardrobe shined, 
Fit for the bless'd states of Pow'rs so divined. 
All which discover'd, thus to Mercury 
He offer'd conference : " Infant ! You that lie 450 
Wrapt so in swath-bands, instantly unfold 
In what conceal' d retreats of yours you hold 
My oxen stol'n by you ; or straight we shall 
Jar, as beseems not Pow'rs Celestial. 
For I will take and hurl thee to the deeps 455 
Of dismal Tartarus, where ill Death keeps 
His gloomy and inextricable fates, 
And to no eye that light illuminates 
435 Chace — enclosure for cattle, like the Latin saltus. 



A HYMN TO HER1IES. 61 

Mother nor Father shall return thee free, 

But under earth shall sorrow fetter thee, 460 

And few repute thee their superior." 

On him replied craft's subtlest Counsellor : 
" What cruel speech hath past Latona's care ! 
Seeks he his stoFn wild-cows where Deities are ? 
I have nor seen nor heard, nor can report 465 

From others' mouths one word of their resort 
To any stranger. Nor will I, to gain 
A base reward, a false relation feign. 
Nor would I, could I tell. Eesemble I 
An ox-thief, or a man ? Especially 470 

A man of such a courage, such a force 
As to that labour goes, that violent course ? 
No infant's work is that. My pow'rs aspire 
To sleep, and quenching of my hunger's fire 
With mother's milk, and, 'gainst cold shades, to arm 
With cradle-cloths my shoulders, and baths warm, 476 
That no man may conceive the war you threat 
Can spring in cause from my so peacefid heat. 
And, even amongst th' Immortals it would bear 
Event of absolute miracle, to hear 4S0 

A new-born infant's forces should transcend 
The limits of his doors ; much less contend 
"With untam'd oxen. This speech nothing seems 
To savour the decorum of the beams 
Cast round about the air Apollo breaks, 4S5 

Where his divine mind her intention speaks. 
I brake but yesterday the blessed womb, 
My feet are tender, and the common tomb 
Of men (the Earth) lies sharp beneath their tread. 
But, if you please, even by my Father's head 490 



62 A HYMN TO HERMES, 

I'll take the great oath, that nor I protest 

Myself to author on your interest 

Any such usurpation, nor have I 

Seen any other that feloniously 

Hath forced your oxen. Strange thing ! What are those 

Oxen of yours ? Or what are oxen ? Knows 496 

My rude mind, think you ? My ears only touch 

At then" renown, and hear that there are such." 

This speech he pass'd ; and, ever as he spake, 
Beams from the hair ahout his eyelids brake, 500 

His eyebrows up and down cast, and his eye 
Every way look'd askance and carelessly, 
And he into a lofty whistling fell, 
As if he idle thought Apollo's spell. 

Apollo, gently smiling, made reply : 505 

" O thou impostor, whose thoughts ever He 
In labour with deceit ! For certain, I 
Retain opinion, that thou (even thus soon) 
Hast ransack' d many a house, and not in one 
Xight's-work alone, nor in one country neither, 510 
Hast been besieging house and man together, 
Eigging and rifling all ways, and no noise 
Made with thy soft feet, where it all destroys. 
Soft, therefore, well, and tender, thou may'st call 
The feet that thy stealths go and fly withal, 515 

For many a field-bred herdsman (unheard still) 
Hast thou made drown the caverns of the hill, 
Where his retreats he, with his helpless tears, 
When any flesh-stealth thy desire endears, 
And thou encount'rest either flocks of sheep, 520 

Or herds of oxen ! Up then ! Do not sleep 

012 Riyying — tricking. 



A HYMN TO HERMES. 63 

Thy last nap in thy cradle, but come down, 

Companion of black night, and, for this crown 

Of thy young* rapines, bear from all the state 

And style of Prince Thief, into endless date." 525 

This said, he took the infant in his arms, 
And with him the remembrance of his harms, 
This presage utt'ring, lifting him aloft : 
" Be evermore the miserably- soft 
Slave of the belly, pursuivant of all, 530 

And author of all mischiefs capital." 

He scorn'd his prophecy so he sneezed in's face 
Most forcibly ; which hearing, his embrace 
He loathed and hurl'd him 'gainst the ground ; yet still 
Took seat before him, though, with all the ill 535 

He bore by hini, he would have left full fain 
That hewer of his heart so into twain. 
Yet salv'd all thus : " Come, you so -swaddled thing ! 
Issue of Maia, and the Thunder's King ! 
Be confident, I shall hereafter find 540 

My broad-brow'd oxen, my prophetic mind 
So far from blaming this thy course, that I 
Foresee thee in it to posterity 
The guide of all men, always, to their ends." 
This spoken, Hermes from the earth ascends, sio 

Starting aloft, and as in study went, 
Wrapping himself in his integument, 
And thus ask'd Phoebus : " Whither force you me, 
Far-shot, and far most powerful Deity ? 
I know, for all your feigning, you 're still wroth ibo 
About your oxen, and suspect my troth. 
O Jupiter ! I wish the general race 
Of all earth's oxen rooted from her face. 



6-1 A HYMN TO HERMES. 

I steal your oxen ! I again profess 

That neither I have stoFn them, nor can guess 555 

"Who else should steal them. What strange heasts are 

these 
Your so -loved oxen ? I must say, to please 
Your humour thus far, that even my few hours 
Have heard their fame. But be the sentence yours 
Of the debate betwixt us, or to Jove 560 

(For more indifferency) the cause remove." 

Thus when the solitude -affecting God, 
And the Latonian seed, had laid abroad 
All things betwixt them ; though not yet agreed, 
Yet, might I speak, Apollo did proceed 565 

Nothing unjustly, to charge Mercury 
With stealing of the cows he does deny. 
But his profession was, with filed speech, 
And craft's fair compliments, to overreach 
All, and even Phoebus. Who because he- knew 570 
His trade of subtlety, he still at view 
Hunted his foe through all the sandy way 
Up to Olympus. Nor would let him stray 
From out his sight, but kept behind him still. 

And now they reach'd the odorif rous hill 575 

Of high Olympus, to their Father Jove, 
To arbitrate the cause in which they strove. 
WTiere, before both, talents of justice were 
Propos'd for him whom Jove should sentence clear, 
In cause of their contention. And now 580 

About Olympus, ever crown'd with snow, 
The rumour of their controversy flew. 
All the Incorruptible, to their view, 

568 Filed speech— see Odyssey, Bk. VI. 219. 



A HYMN TO HERMES. Go 

On Heaven's steep mountain made return'd repair. 

Hermes, and He that light hurls through the air, 5S5 

Before the Thund'rer's knees stood ; who hegun 

To question thus far his illustrious Son : 

" Phoebus ! To what end bring'st thou captive here 

Him in whom my mind puts delights so dear ? 

This new-born infant, that the place supplies 590 

Of Herald jet to all the Deities ? 

This serious business, you may witness, draws 

The Deities' whole Court to discuss the cause. '' 

Phoebus replied : •'• And not unworthy is 
The cause of all the Court of Deities, 595 

For, you shall hear, it comprehends the weight 
Of devastation, and the very height 
Of spoil and rapine, even of Deities' rights. 
Yet you, as if myself loved such delights, 
Use words that wound my heart. I bring you here 600 
An infant, that, even now, admits no peer 
In rapes and robb'ries. Finding out his place, 
After my measure of an infinite space, 
In the Cyllenian mountain, such a one 
In all the art of opprobration, 605 

As not in all the Deities I have seen, 
Nor in th' oblivion-mark'd whole race of men. 
In night he drave my oxen from their leas, 
Along the lofty roar-resounding seas, 
From out the road-way quite ; the steps of them 610 
So quite transpos'd. as would amaze the beam 
Of any mind's eye, being so infinite much 
Involved in doubt, as show'd a deified touch 
Went to the work's performance ; all the way, 
Through which my cross-hoved cows he did convey, 615 

F 



66 A HYMN TO HERMES. 

Had dust so darkly-hard to search, and he 

So past all measure wrapt in subtilty. 

For, nor with feet, nor hands, he form'd his steps, 

In passing through the dry way's sandy heaps, 

But used another counsel to keep hid 620 

His monstrous tracts, that show'd as one had slid 

On oak or other houghs, that swept out still 

The footsteps of his oxen, and did fill 

Their prints up ever, to the daffodill 

(Or dainty-feeding meadow) as they trod, 625 

Driven by this cautelous and infant God. 

A mortal man, yet, saw him driving on 
His prey to Pylos. Which when he had done, 
And got his pass sign'd, with a sacred fire, 
In peace, and freely (though to his desire, 630 

Not to the Gods, he offer'd part of these 
My ravish'd oxen) he retires, and lies, 
Like to the gloomy night, in his dim den, 
All hid in darkness ; ,and in clouts again 
Wrapp'd him so closely, that the sharp-seen eye 635 
Of your own eagle could not see him He. 
For with his hands the air he rarified 
(This way, and that moved) till bright gleams did glide 
About his being, that, if any eye 
Should dare the darkness, light appos'd so nigh uo 
Might blind it quite with her antipathy. 
Which wile he wove, in curious care t' illude 
Th' extreme of any eye that could intrude. 
On which relying, he outrageously 
(When I accus'd him) trebled his reply : 645 

* I did not see, I did not hear, nor I 

626 Cavtelous — artful. A common word. 

645 Trebled — whined, spoke in a whining tone. 



A HYMN TO HERMES. 67 

Will tell at all, that any other stole 

Your broad-brow'd beeves. Which an impostor's soul 

Would soon have done, and any author fain 

Of purpose only a reward to gain.' 650 

And thus he colour'd truth in every lie." 

This said, Apollo sat ; and Mercury 
The Gods' Commander pleased with this reply : 
" Father ! I'll tell thee truth (for I am true, 
And far from art to lie) : He did pursue 655 

Even to my cave his oxen this self day, 
The sun new-raising his illustrious ray ; 
But brought with him none of the Bliss-endued, 
Nor any ocular witness, to conclude 
His bare assertion ; but his own command 660 

Laid on with strong and necessary hand, 
To show his oxen ; using threats to cast 
My poor and infant powers into the vast 
Of ghastly Tartarus ; because he bears 
Of strength-sustaining youth the flaming years, 665 
And I but 3^esterday produced to light. 
By which it fell into his own free sight, 
That I in no similitude appeared 
Of power to be the forcer of a herd. 
And credit me, O Father, since the grace 670 

Of that name, in your style, you please to place, 
I drave not home his oxen, no, nor prest 
Past mine own threshold ; for 'tis manifest, 
I reverence with my soul the Sun, and all 
The knowing dwellers in this heavenly Hall, 675 

Love you, observe the least ; and 'tis most clear 
In your own knowledge, that my merits bear 
No least guilt of his blame. To all which I 



(38 A HYMN TO HERMES. 

Dare add heaven's great oath, boldly swearing by 

All these so well-built entries of the Blest. 680 

And therefore when I saw myself so prest 

With his reproaches, I confess I burn'd 

In my pure gall, and harsh reply return'd. 

Add your aid to your younger then, and free 

The scruple fixt in Phoebus' jealousy." 685 

This said he wink'd upon his Sire ; and still 
His swathbands held beneath his arm ; no will 
Discern'd in him to hide, but have them shown. 

Jove laugh'd aloud at his ingenious Son, 
Quitting himself with art, so likely wrought, 690 

As show'd in his heart not a rapinous thought ; 
Commanding both to bear atoned minds 
And seek out th' oxen ; in which search he binds 
Hermes to play the guide, and show the Sun 
(All grudge exiFd) the shrowd to which he won 695 
His fair-eyed oxen ; then his forehead bow'd 
For sign it must be so ; and Hermes show'd 
His free obedience ; so soon he inclined 
To his persuasion and command his mind. 

Now, then, Jove's jarring Sons no longer stood, 700 
But sandy Pylos and th' Alphsean flood 
Reach' d instantly, and made as quick a fall 
On those rich-feeding fields and lofty stall 
Where Phoebus' oxen Hermes safely kept, 
Driven in by night. When suddenly he stept 705 

Up to the stony cave, and into light 
Drave forth the oxen. Phoebus at first sight 
Knew them the same, and saw apart dispread 

695 Shrowd — den, caves underground. The crypt of a church 
sometimes so called. 



A HYMN TO HERMES. 69 

Upon a high-rais'd rock the hides new flead 

Of th' oxen sacrific'd. Then Phoebus said : 710 

" O thou in crafty counsels undisplaid ! 

How couldst thou cut the throats, and cast to earth 

Two such huge oxen, being so young a birth, 

And a mere infant ? I admire thy force, 

And will, behind thy back. But this swift course 715 

Of growing into strength thou hadst not need 

Continue any long date, O thou Seed 

Of honour'd Maia !" Hennes (to show how 

He did those deeds) did forthwith cut and bow 

Strong osiers in soft folds, and strappled straight 720 

One of his hugest oxen, all his weight 

Lay'ng prostrate on the earth at Phoebus' feet, 

All his four cloven lioves eas'ly made to greet 

Each other upwards, all together brought. 

In all which bands yet all the beast's powers -wrought 

To rise, and stand ; when all the herd about 726 

The mighty Hermes rush'd in, to help out 

Their fellow from his fetters. Phoebus' view 

Of all this up to admiration drew 

Even his high forces ; and stern looks he threw 730 

At Hermes for his herd's wrong, and the place 

To which he had retir'd them, being in grace 

And fruitful riches of it so entire ; 

All which set all his force on envious fire. 

All whose heat flew out of his eyes in flames, 735 

Which fain he would have hid, to hide the shames 

Of his ill-govern'd passions. But with ease 

Hermes could calm them, and his humours please 

Still at his pleasure, were he ne'er so great 

In force and fortitude, and high in heat. 740 



70 A HYMN TO HERMES. 

In all which he his lute took, and assay'd 
A song upon him, and so strangely play'd, 
That from his hand a ravishing horror flew. 
Which Phoebus into laughter turn'd, and grew 
Pleasant past measure ; tunes so artful clear 745 

Strook even his heart-strings, and his mind made hear. 
His lute so powerful was in forcing love, 
As his hand rul'd it, that from him it drove 
All fear of Phoebus ; yet he gave him still 
The upper hand ; and, to advance his skill 750 

To utmost miracle, he play'd sometimes 
Single awhile ; in which, when all the climes 
Of rapture he had reach'd, to make the Sun 
Admire enough, O then his voice would run 
Such points upon his play, and did so move, 755 

They took Apollo prisoner to his love. 
And now the deathless Gods and deathful Earth 
He sung, beginning at their either's birth 
To full extent of all their empery. 
And, first, the honour to Mnemosyne, 760 

The Muses' mother, of all Goddess states 
He gave ; even forced to't by the equal fates. 
And then (as it did in priority fall 
Of age and birth) he celebrated all. 
And with such elegance and order sung 765 

(His lute still touch'd, to stick more off his tongue) 
That Phoebus' heart with infinite love he eat. 
Who, therefore, thus did his deserts entreat : 
" Master of sacrifice ! Chief soul of feast ! 
Patient of all pains ! Artizan so blest, 770 

That all things thou canst do in any one ! 
Worth fifty oxen is th' invention 



A HYMN TO HERMES. 71 

Of this one lute. We both shall now, I hope, 

In firm peace work to all our wishes' scope. 

Inform me (thou that every way canst wind, 775 

And turn to act, all wishes of thy mind) 

Together with thy birth came all thy skill ? 

Or did some God, or God-like man, instill 

This heavenly song to thee ? Methinks I hear 

A new voice, such as never yet came near 780 

The breast of any, either man or God, 

Till in thee it had prime and period. 

What art, what Muse that med'cine can produce 

For cares most cureless, what inveterate use 

Or practice of a virtue so profuse 785 

(Which three do all the contribution keep 

That Joy or Love confers, or pleasing Sleep,) 

Taught thee the sovereign facture of them all ? 

I of the Muses am the capital 

Consort, or follower ; and to these belong 790 

The grace of dance, all worthy ways of song, 

And ever-flourishing verse, the delicate set 

And sound of instruments. But never yet 

Did anything so much affect my mind 

With joy and care to compass, as this kind 795 

Of song and play, that for the spritely feast 

Of flourishing assemblies are the best 

And aptest works that ever worth gave act. 

My powers with admiration stand distract, 

To hear with what a hand to make in love 800 

Thou rul'st thy lute. And (though thy yong'st hours move 

At full art in old councils) here I vow 

(Even by this cornel dart I use to throw) 

To thee, and to thy mother, I'll make thee 



72 A HYMN TO HERMES. 

Amongst the Gods of glorious degree, 805 

Guide of men's ways and theirs ; and will impart 

To thee the mighty imperatory art, 

Bestow rich gifts on thee, and in the end 

Never deceive thee." Hermes (as a Mend 

That wrought on all advantage, and made gain 8io 

His capital object) thus did entertain 

Phoebus Apollo : " Do thy dignities, 

Far-working God and circularly wise, 

Demand my virtues ? Without envy I 

Will teach thee to ascend my faculty. 815 

And this day thou shalt reach it ; finding me, 

In acts and counsels, all ways kind to thee, 

As one that all things knows, and first tak'st seat 

Amongst th ? Immortals, being good and great, 

And therefore to Jove's love mak'st free access, 820 

Even out of his accomplisht holiness. 

Great gifts he likewise gives thee ; who, fame says, 

Hast won thy greatness by his will, his ways, 

By him know'st all the powers prophetical, 

O thou far- worker, and the fates of all ! 825 

Yea, and I know thee rich, yet apt to learn, 

And even thy wish dost but discern and earn. 

And since thy soul so burns to know the way 

To play and sing as I do, sing, and play ; 

Play, and perfection in thy play employ ; 830 

And be thy care, to learn things good, thy joy. 

Take thou my lute (my love) and give thou me 

The glory of so great a faculty. 

This sweet-tuned consort, held but in thy hand, 

Sing, and perfection in thy song command. 835 

For thou already hast the way to speak 



A HYMN TO HERMES. 73 

Fairly and elegantly, and to break 

All eloquence into thy utter d mind. 

One gift from heaven found may another find. 

Use then securely this thy gift, and go sw 

To feasts and dances that enamour so, 

And to that covetous sport of getting glory, 

That day nor night will suffer to be sory. 

"Whoever does but say in verse, sings still ; 

"Which he that can of any other skill S4o 

Is capable, so he be taught by art 

And wisdom, and can speak at every part 

Things pleasing to an understanding mind ; 

And such a one that seeks this lute shall find. 

Him still it teaches eas'ly, though he plays 850 

Soft voluntaries only, and ase 

As wanton as the sports of children are, 

And (even when he aspires to singular 

In all the mast'ries he shall play or sing) 

Finds the whole work but an unhappy thing, S5-5 

He, I say, sure shall of this lute be king. 

But he, whoever rudely sets upon 

Of this lute's skill tlr inquest or question 

Never so ardently and angrily, 

Without the aptness and ability 860 

Of art, and nature fitting, never shall 

Aspire to this, but utter trivial 

And idle accents, though sung ne'er so loud, 

And never so commended of the crowd. 

But thee I know, O eminent Son of Jove, 865 

The fiery learner of whatever Love 

Hath sharpen'd thy affections to achieve, 

And thee I give this lute. Let us now live 



74 A HYMN TO HERMES. 

Feeding upon the hill and horse-fed earth 

Our never-handled oxen ; whose dear birth 870 

Then- females, fellow'd with their males, let flow 

In store enough hereafter ; nor must you 

(However cunning-hearted your wits are) 

Boil in your gall a grudge too circular." 

Thus gave he him his lute, which he embrac'd, 875 
And gave again a goad, whose bright head cast 
Beams like the light forth ; leaving to his care 
His oxen's keeping. Which, with joyful fare, 
He took on him. The lute Apollo took 
Into his left hand, and aloft he shook 880 

Delightsome sounds up, to which God did sing. 

Then were the oxen to their endless spring 
Turn'd ; and Jove's two illustrous Offsprings flew 
Up to Olympus where it ever snew, 
Delighted with their lute's sound all the way. 8S5 

"Whom Jove much joy'd to see, and endless stay 
Gave to their knot of friendship. From which date 
Hermes gave Phoebus an eternal state 
In his affection, whose sure pledge and sign 
His lute was, and the doctrine so divine 890 

Jointly conferr'd on him ; which well might be 
True symbol of his love's simplicity. 
On th' other part, Apollo in his friend 
Form'd th' art of wisdom, to the binding end 
Of his vow'd friendship ; and (for further meed) 895 
Gave him the far-heard fistulary reed. 

For all these forms of friendship, Phoebus yet 
Fear'd that both form and substance were not met 
In Mercury's intentions ; and, in plain, 

884 Snew — past tense of snow ; still a provincialism. 



A HYMN TO HEBMES. 75 

Said (since he saw him born to craft and gain, 900 

And that Jove's will had him the honour done 

To change at his will the possession 

Of others' goods) he fear'd his breach of vows 

In stealing both his lute and cunning bows, 

And therefore wish'd that what the Gods affect 905 

Himself would witness, and to his request 

His head bow, swearing by th' impetuous flood 

Of Styx that of his whole possessions not a good 

He would diminish, but therein maintain 

The full content in which his mind did reign. 910 

And then did Maia's son his forehead bow, 

Making, by all that he desired, his vow 

Never to prey more upon anything 

In just possession of the far- shot King, 

Nor ever to come near a house of his. 915 

Latonian Phoebus bow'd his brow to this, 

With his like promise, saying : " Not any one 

Of all the Gods, nor any man, that son 

Is to Saturn ius, is more dear to me, 

More trusted, nor more honour'd is than thee. 920 

Which yet with greater gifts of Deity 

In future I'll confirm, and give thy state 

A rod that riches shall accumulate, 

Nor leave the bearer thrall to death, or fate, 

Or any sickness. All of gold it is, 925 

Three-leaved, and fuH of all felicities. 

And this shall be thy guardian, this shall give 

The Gods to thee in all the truth they live, 

And, finally, shall this the tut'ress be 

903 Goods— the folio, followed by Mr. Singer, has Gods, but 
it is obviously a misprint ; unless we read other Gods. It is 
an interpolation of Chapman's. 



76 A BYMJf TO HERMES. 

Of all the words and works informing me 930 

From Jove's hio-h counsels, making known to tliee 

All my instructions. But to prophesy. 

O best of Jove's beloved, and that high skill 

Which to obtain lies burning in thy will, 

Nor thee, nor any God, will Fate let learn. 935 

Onlv Jove's mind hath insight to discern 

TThat that importeth ; yet am I allow' d 

(My known faith trusted, and my forehead bow'd, 

Our great oath taken, to resolve to none 

Of all tli' Immortals the restriction 9±o 

Of that deep knowledge) of it all the mind. 

Since then it sits in such fast bounds confin'd, 

brother, when the golden rod is held 

In thy strong hand, seek not to have reveal' d 

Any sure fate that Jove will have eonceaFd. 945 

For no man shall, by know'ng, prevent his fate ; 

And therefore will I hold in my free state 

The pow'r to hurt and help what man I will, 

Of all the greatest, or least touch'd with ill, 

That walk within the circle of mine eye, 950 

In all the tribes and sexes it shall try. 

Yet, truly, any man shall have Ins will 

To reap the fruits of my prophetic skill, 

Whoever seeks it by the voice or wing 

Of birds, born truly such events to sing. 955 

Nor will I falsely, nor with fallacies, 

Infringe the truth on which his faith relies, 

But he that truths in chattering plumes would find, 

Quite opposite to them that prompt my mind, 

And learn by natural forgers of vain lies 960 

The inore -than- ever- certain Deities, 



A HYMN TO HERMES. 77 

That man shall sea-ways tread that leave no tracts, 

And false or no guide find for all his facts. 

And yet will I his gifts accept as well 

As his to whom the simple truth I tell. 965 

One other thing to thee I'll yet make known, 
Maia's exceedingly renowned son, 
And Jove's, and of the Gods' whole session 
The most ingenious genius : There dwell 
"Witliin a crooked cranny, in a dell 970 

Beneath Parnassus, certain Sisters born, 
Call'd Parcse, whom extreme swift wings adorn, 
Their number three, that have upon their heads 
White barley-flour still sprinkled, and are maids ; 
And these are schoolmistresses of things to come, 975 
Without the gift of prophecy. Of whom 
(Being but a boy, and keeping oxen near) 
I learn'd their skill, though my great Father were 
Careless of it, or them. These flying from home 
To others' roofs, and fed with honeycomb, 980 

Command all skill, and (being enraged then) 
Will freely tell the truths of things to men. 
But if they give them not that Gods' sweet meat, 
They then are apt to utter their deceit, 
And lead men from their way. And these will I 9S5 
Give thee hereafter, when their scrutiny 
And truth thou hast both made and learn'd ; and then 
Please thyself with them, and the race of men 
(Wilt thou know any) with thy skill endear, 
Who will, be sure, afford it greedy ear, 990 

And hear it often if it prove sincere. 

Take these, Maia's son, and in thy care 
Be horse and oxen, all such men as are 



78 A HYMN TO HERMES. 

Patient of labour, lions, white-tooth'd boars, 

Mastiffs, and flocks that feed the flow'ry shores, 995 

And every four-foot beast ; all which shall stand 

In awe of thy high imperatory hand. 

Be thou to Dis, too, sole Ambassador, 

Who, though all gifts and bounties he abhor, 

On thee he will bestow a wealthy one." 1000 

Thus king Apollo honour' d Maia's son 
With all the rites of friendship ; all whose love 
Had imposition from the will of Jove. 

And thus with Gods and mortals Hermes lived, 
Who truly help'd but few, but all deceived 1005 

With an undifferencing respect, and made 
Vain words and false persuasions his trade. 
His deeds were all associates of the night, 
In which his close wrongs cared for no man's right. 

So all salutes to Hermes that are due, 1010 

Of whom, and all Gods, shall my Muse sing true. 



THE END OF THE HYMN TO HERMES. 




A HYMN TO VENUS. 




' HE force, Muse, and functions now unfold 
Of Cyprian Venus, grac'd with mines of 

gold ; 
Who even in Deities lights love's sweet 
desire, 
And all Death's kinds of men makes kiss her fire, 
All air's wing'd nation, all the belluine, 5 

That or the earth feeds, or the seas confine. 
To all which appertain the love and care 
Of well-crown'd Venus' works. Yet three there are 
"Whose minds She neither can deceive nor move ; 
Pallas, the Seed of JEgis -bearing Jove, 10 

Who still lives indevirginate, her eyes 
Being blue, and sparkling like the freezing skies, 
Whom all the gold of Venus never can 
Tempt to affect her facts with God or man. 
She, loving strife, and Mars's working banes, 15 

Pitch'd fields and fights, and famous artizans, 
Taught earthy men first all the arts that are, 
Chariots, and all the frames vehicular, 
Chiefly with brass arm'd, and adorn' d for war. 
Where Venus only soft-skinn'd wenches fills 20 

20 Wenches— See Odyssey, Bk. iv. 977. 



80 A HYMN TO VENUS. 

With wanton house-works, and suggests those skills 

Still to their studies. Whom Diana neither, 

That bears the golden distaff, and together 

Calls horns, and hollows, and the cries of hounds, 

And owns the epithet of loving sounds 25 

For their sakes, springing from such spritely sports, 

Can catch with her kind lures ; but hill resorts 

To wild-beasts, slaughters, accents far-off heard 

Of harps and dances, and of woods unshear'd 

The sacred shades she loves, jet likes as well so 

Cities where good men and their offspring dwell. 

The third, whom her kind passions nothing please, 

Is virgin Vesta ; whom Saturnides 

Made reverend with his counsels, when his Sire, 

That adverse counsels agitates, life's fire 35 

Had kindled in her, being his last-begot. 

Whom Neptune woo'd to knit with him the knot 

Of honour' d nuptials, and Apollo too ; 

Which with much vehemence she refused to do, 

And stern repulses put upon them both, 40 

Adding to all her vows the Gods' great oath, 

And touching Jove's chin, which must consummate 

All vows so bound, that she would hold her state, 

And be th' invincible Maid of Deities 

Through all her days' dates. For Saturnides 45 

Gave her a fair gift in her nuptials' stead, 

To sit in midst of his house, and be fed 

With all the free and richest feast of heaven, 

In all the temples of the Gods being given 

The prize of honour. Not a mortal man, so 

24 Hollows— shouts ; or, as Mr. Singer prints, halloos. 
42 See Iliad, Bk. i. 481 



A HYMN TO VENUS. 81 

(That either, of the Pow'rs Olympian 
His half-birth having, may be said to be 
A mortal of the Gods, or else that he, 
Deities' wills doing, is of Deity) 

But gives her honour of the amplest kind. 55 

Of all these three can Venus not a mind 
Deceive, or set on forces to reflect. 
Of all Pow'rs else yet, not a sex, nor sect, 
Flies Venus ; either of the blessed Gods, 
Or men confin'd in mortal periods. 60 

But even the mind of Jove she doth seduce, 
That chides with thunder so her lawless use 
In human creatures, and by lot is given 
Of all most honour, both in earth and heaven. 
And yet even his all-wise and mighty mind 65 

She, when she lists, can forge affects to blind, 
And mix with mortal dames his Deity, 
Conceal'd at all parts from the jealous eye 
Of Juno, who was both his sister born, 
And made his wife ; whom beauty did adorn 70 

Past all the bevy of Immortal Dames, 
And whose so chiefly-glorified flames 
Cross-counsell'd Saturn got, and Rha?a bore, 
And Jove's pure counsels (being conqueror) 
His wife made of his sister. Ay, and more, 75 

Cast such an amorous fire into her mind 
As made her (like him) with the mortal kind 
Meet in unmeet bed ; using utmost haste, 
Lest she should know that he lived so unchaste, 
Before herself felt that fault in her heart, 80 

And gave her tongue too just edge of desert 
71 Bevy— See Odyssey, Bk. vi. 115. 

Gr 



A HYMN TO VEXUS. 

To tax his lightness. With this end. beside* 
Lest laughter-studying Venus should deride 
The Gods more than the Goddesses, and Bay 
That she the Gods eommix'd in amorous play 
With mortal dames, begetting mortal - 
T* immortal sires, and not make Goddesses breed 
The like with mortal fathers. But. t' acquire 
Both Gods and God 4 her despite. 

Jove took (even in herself) on him her poVr, 
And made her with a mortal paramour 
Use as deform'd a mixture as the rest ; 
Kindling a kind affection in her breast 
To God-like-liinb'd Anchises. as he kept, 
On Ida's top-on-top-to-heaven's-pole-heapt, 
Amongst the many fountains there, his herd. 
Fur. after his brave person had appear "d 
To her bright eye, her heart flew all on fire, 
And to amaze she burn'd in his desire, 
Flew straight to Cyprus, to her odorous fane 100 

And altars, that the people Paphian 
Advanced to her. Where, soon as enter'd. die 
The shining gates shut ; and the Graces three 
Wash'd, and with oils of everlasting ^cent 
Bathed, as became, her deathless lineament. 105 

Then her ambrosian mantle she a.-sum'd, 
With rich and odoriferous airs perfum'd. 
Which being put on, and all her trims beside 
Fair, and with all allurements amplified, 
The all-of-gold-made laughter-loving Dame 110 

Cyprus, and for Troy became 

roXo£. Altissimum habeas verticem, cvjus summitas 
ipsum poiam attingit. — ChaPMAS. 



A HYMN TO VENUS. 83 

A swift contendress, her pass cutting* all 

Along the clouds, and made her instant fall 

On fountml Ida, that her mother-breasts 

Gives to the preyful brood of savage beasts. 115 

And through the hill she went the ready way 

T" Anchises' oxstall, where did fawn and play 

About her blessed feet wolves grisly- gray, 

Terrible lions, many a mankind bear, 

And lybberds swift, insatiate of red deer. 120 

Whose sight so pleas'd, that, ever as she past 

Through every beast, a kindly love she cast, 

That, in their dens obscured with shadows deep, 

Made all, distinguish'd in kind couples, sleep. 

And now she reach'd the rich pavilion 125 

Of the heroe, in whom heavens had shown 
A fair and goodly composition, 
And whom she in his oxstall found, alone, 
His oxen feeding in fat pastures by, 
He walking up and down, sounds clear and high 130 
From his harp striking. Then before him she 
Stood like a virgin, that invincibly 
Had borne her beauties : yet alluringly 
Bearing her person, lest his ravish'd eye 
Should chance t' affect him with a stupid fear. 135 

Anchises seeing her, all his senses were 
With wonder stricken, and high-taken heeds 
Both of her form, brave stature, and rich weeds. 
For, for a veil, she shind in an attire 
That cast a radiance past the ray of fire. uo 

Beneath which wore she, girt to her, a gown 

119 Mankind — masculine, ferocious. 

120 Lybberds — leopards. 



84 A HYMN TO VEXUs. 

Wrought all with growing-rose-buds, reaching down 

T" her slender smalls, which buskins did divine. 

Such as taught Thetis' silver feet to shine. 

Her soft white neck rich carquenets embraced. 

Bright, and with gold in all variety graced, 

That to her breasts let down lay there and sk* 

A?, at her joyful full, the rising Moon. 

Her sight show'd miracles. Anchises' heart 

Love took into his hand, and made him part 

With these high salutation? : " Joy. Queen ! 

"Whoever of the Blest thy beauties been 

That hVht these entries : or the Peitv 

That dans afteeteth : or that gave the Eye 

Of heaven his heat and lustre : or that ma \ 155 

The hearts of all with all-commandii:_ 

d onerous Themis ; or the blue-eyed Ha 

Or of the - any that are laid 

With all the Gods in comparable scales, 

Ajid whom fame up to immortality caBfi | Ml 

Or any of the Xyrnphs. that unshorn grove-. 

Or that this fail* hill-habitation, k 

Or valleys flowing with earth's fattest goo 

Or fountains pouring forth eternal flo-. 

S . which of all thou art. that in some place 165 

Of circular prospect, for thine eye-' dear grace, 

I may an altar build, and to thy pow'rs 

[Make -acred all the year's devote 

"With consecra:: : and opulent. 

:\1 whereof, be thy benign mind bent 170 

145 Carquenets : netimes spell rcanets and carknets. 

153 The Deity, kc. — Diana : that gave the eye, &c — Latona. 
mother of Apollo 5 that moves the hearts — Venus 5 the blue-eyed 

Jlaid— 



A HYMN TO VENUS. 85 

To these wish'd blessings of me : Give me parts 

Of chief attraction in Trojan hearts ; 

And, after, give me the refulgency 

Of most renown'd and rich posterity ; 

Long, and free life, and heaven's sweet light as long ; 

The people's blessings, and a health so strong 176 

That no disease it let my life engage, 

Till th' utmost limit of a human age." 

To this Jove's Seed this answer gave again : 
" Anchises ! Happiest of the human strain ! iso 

I am no Goddess ! Why, a thrall to death 
Think'st thou like those that immortality breathe ? 
A woman brought me forth ; my father's name 
Was Otreiis, if ever his high fame 
Thine ears have witness'd, for he govern'd all 185 

The Phrygian state, whose every town a wall 
Impregnable embrac'd. Your tongue, you hear, 
I speak so well, that in my natural sphere 
(As I pretend) it must have taken prime. 
A woman, likewise, of the Trojan clime 190 

Took of me, in her house, the nurse's care 
From my dear mother's bosom ; and thus are 
My words of equal accent with your own. 
How here I come, to make the reason known, 
Argicides, that bears the golden rod, 195 

Transferr'd me forcibly from my abode 
Made with the maiden train of Her that joys 
In golden shafts, and loves so well the noise 
Of hounds and hunters (heaven's pure -living Pow'r) 
Where many a nymph and maid of mighty dow'r 200 
Chaste sports employ' d, all circled with a crown 
197 Diana. 



A HYMN TO VEXUS. 

Of infinite multitude, to see bo shown 
Our maiden pastimes. Yet, from all the fair 
Of this so forceful concourse, up in air 
The golden-rod- sustaining- Argus' -Guide 205 

Kapt me in sight of all. and made me ride 
Along the clouds with him, enforcing me 
Through many a labour of mortality, 
Through many an unbuilt region, and a rude. 
Where savage beasts devour' d preys warm and Grade, 
And would not let my fears take one foot's tread 211 
On Her by whom are all lives comforted. 
But said my maiden state must grace the bed 
Of king Anchises. and bring forth to thee 
Issue as fair as of divine degree. 215 

"Which said, and showing me thy moving grace, 
Away flew he up to th' Immortal Race. 
And thus came I to thee : Necessity, 
With her steel stings, compelling me t' apply 
To her high pow'r my will. But you must I 220 

Implore by Jove, and all the reverence due 
To your clear parents, who. in bearing you, 
Can bear no mean sail, lead me home to them 
An untouch'd maid, being brought up in tlr extreme 
Of much too cold simplicity to know 225 

The fiery cunnings that in Venus glow. 
Show me to them then, and thy brothers born, 
I shall appear none that parts disadorn, 
But such as well may serve a brother's wife, 
And show them now, even to my future life, 230 

If such or no my present will extend. 
To horse-breed-vary'ng Phrygia likewise send, 
212 The Earth. 



A HYMN TO VENUS. 87 

T' inform my sire and mother of my state, 

That live for me extreme disconsolate ; 

Who gold enough, and well -woven weeds, will give. 235 

All whose rich gifts in my amends receive. 

All this perform'd, add celebration then 

Of honour'd nuptials, that by God and men 

Are held in reverence." All this while she said, 

Into his bosom jointly she convey 'd 240 

The fires of love ; when, all-enamour'd, he 

In these terms answer'd : " If mortality 

Confine thy fortunes, and a woman were 

Mother to those attractions that appear 

In thy admir'd form, thy great father given 245 

High name of Otreiis ; and the Spy of heaven 

(Immortal Mercury) th' enforceful cause 

That made thee lose the prize of that applause 

That modesty immaculate virgins gives, 

My wife thou shalt be call'd through both our lives. 250 

Nor shall the pow'rs of men nor Gods withhold 

My fiery resolution to enfold 

Thy bosom in mine arms ; which here I vow 

To firm performance, past delay, and now. 

Nor, should Apollo with his silver bow 255 

Shoot me to instant death, would I forbear 

To do a deed so full of cause so dear. 

For with a heaven-sweet woman I will lie, 

Though straight I stoop the house of Dis, and die." 

This said, he took her hand, and she took way 260 
AVith him, her bright eyes casting round ; whose stay 
She stuck upon a bed, that was before 
Made for the king, and wealthy coverings wore. 
On which bears' hides and big-voic'd lions' lay, 



S8 A HYMN TO VENUS. 

"Whose preyful lives the king had made his prey, 265 

Hunting th' Idalian hills. This bed when they 

Had both ascended, first he took from her 

The fiery weed, that was her utmost wear ; 

Unbutton'd her next rosy robe ; and loos'd 

The girdle that her slender waist enclos'd ; 270 

Unlac'd her buskins ; all her jewelry 

Took from her neck and breasts, and all laid by 

Upon a golden- studded chair of state. 

Th' amaze of all which being remov'd, even Fate 

And council of the equal Gods gave way 275 

To this, that with a deathless Goddess lay 

A deathful man ; since, what his love assum'd, 

[Not with his conscious knowledge was presumed. 

Now when the shepherds and the herdsmen, all, 
Turn'd from their flow'ry pasture to their stall, 2S0 

With all their oxen, fat and frolic sheep, 
Venus into Anchises cast a sleep, 
Sweet and profound ; while with her own hands now 
With her rich weeds she did herself endow ; 
But so distinguish' d, that he clear might know 285 

His happy glories ; then (to her desire 
Her heavenly person put in trims entire) 
She by the bed stood of the well-built stall, 
Advanc'd her head to state celestial, 
And in her cheeks arose the radiant hue 290 

Of rich-crown'd Venus to apparent view. 
And then she rous'd him from his rest, and said : 
" Up, my Dardanides, forsake thy bed. 
What pleasure, late employ'd, lets humour steep 
Thy lids in this inexcitable sleep ? 295 

Wake, and now say, if I appear to thee 



A HYMN TO VENUS. 89 

Like her that first thine eyes conceited me." 

This started him from sleep, though deep and dear, 
And passing promptly he enjoy' d his ear. 
But when his eye saw Venus' neck and eyes, 300 

Whose beauties could not bear the counterprise 
Of any other, down his own eyes fell, 
Which pallid fear did from her view repell, 
And made him, with a main respect beside, 
Turn his whole person from her state, and hide 305 

(With his rich weed appos'd) his royal face, 
These wing'd words using : " When, at first, thy grace 
Mine eyes gave entertainment, well I knew 
Thy state was deified ; but thou told'st not true ; 
And therefore let me pray thee (by thy love 3io 

Borne to thy father, ^Egis-bearing Jove) 
That thou wilt never let me live to be 
An abject, after so divine degree 
Taken in fortune, but take ruth on me. 
For any man that with a Goddess lies, 315 

Of interest in immortalities, 
Is never long-hVd." She replied : u Forbear, 
O happiest of mortal men, this fear, 
And rest assured, that (not for me, at least) 
Thy least ills fear fits ; no, nor for the rest 320 

Of all the Blessed, for thou art their friend ; 
And so far from sustaining instant end, 
That to thy long-enlarg'd life there shall spring 
Amongst the Trojans a dear son, and king, 
To whom shall many a son, and son's son, rise 325 

In everlasting great posterities ; 
His name iEneas ; therein keeping life, 
For ever, in my much-conceited grief, 



90 A HYMN TO VENUS. 

That I, immortal, fell into the bed 

Of one whose blood mortality must shed. 330 

But rest thou comforted, and all the race 

That Troy shall propagate, in this high grace : 

That, past all races else, the Gods stand near 

Your glorious nation, for the forms ye bear, 

And natures so ingenuous and sincere. 335 

For which, the great-in-counsels (Jupiter) 

Your gold-lock' d Ganymedes did transfer 

(In rapture far from men's depressed fates) 

To make him consort with our Deified States, 

And scale the tops of the Saturnian skies, 34o 

He was so mere a marvel in their eyes. 

And therefore from a bowl of gold he fills 

Bed nectar, that the rude distension kills 

Of winds that in your human stomachs breed. 

But then did languor on the liver feed 345 

Of Tros, his father, that was king of Troy, 

And ever did his memory employ 

With loss of his dear beauty so bereaven, 

Though with a sacred whirlwind rapt to heaven. 

But Jove, in pity of him, saw him given 350 

Good compensation, sending by Heaven's Spy 

"White -swift-hov'd horse, that Immortality 

Had made firm- spirited ; and had, beside, 

Hermes to see his ambassy supplied 

With this vow'd bounty (using all at large 355 

That his unalter'd counsels gave in charge) 

That he himself should immortality breathe, 

Expert of age and woe as well as death. 

347 d\rj(JTog. Cujus memoAa erit perpetua. — CHAPMAN. 

358 Expert — in the classical sense,/ree from, unaccompanied by. 



A HYMN TO VENUS. 91 

" This ambassy express'd, he inourn'd no more, 
But up with all his inmost mind he bore, 360 

Joying that he, upon his swift-hor d horse, 
Should be sustained in an eternal course. 

" So did the golden -throned Aurora raise, 
Into her lap, another that the praise 
Of an immortal fashion had in fame, 365 

And of your nation bore the noble name, 
(His title Tithon) who, not pleased with her, 
As she his lovely person did transfer, 
To satisfy him, she bade ask of Jove 
The gift of an Immortal for her love. 370 

Jove gave, and bound it with his bowed brow, 
Performing to the utmost point his vow. 
Fool that she was, that would her love engage, 
And not as I011&* ask from the bane of ao-e 
The sweet exemption, and youth's endless flow'r ! 375 
Of which as long as both the grace and powT 
His person entertain'd, she loved the man, 
And (at the fluents of the ocean 
Near Earth's extreme bounds) dwelt with him; but 

when 
(According to the course of aged men) 330 

On his fair head, and honourable beard, 
His first grey hairs to her light eyes appear'd, 
She left his bed, yet gave him still for food 
The Gods' ambrosia, and attire as good. 
Till even the hate of age came on so fast 385 

That not a lineament of his was grac'd 
With pow'r of motion, nor did still sustain, 
Much less, the vigour had t' advance a vein, 
The virtue lost in each exhausted limb, 



92 A HYMN TO VENUS. 

That at his wish before would answer him ; 390 

All pow'rs so quite decay'd, that when he spake 

His voice no perceptible accent brake. 

Her counsel then thought best to strive no more, 

But lay him in his bed and lock his door. 

Such an Immortal would not I wish thee, 395 

T' extend all days so to eternity. 

But if, as now, thou couldst perform thy course 

In grace of form, and all corporeal force, 

To an eternal date, thou then shouldst bear 

My husband's worthy name, and not a tear 400 

Should I need rain, for thy deserts declin'd, 

From my all-clouded bitterness of mind. 

But now the stern storm of relentless age 

Will quickly circle thee, that waits t' engage 

All men alike, even loathsomeness, and bane 405 

Attending with it, every human wane, 

Which even the Gods hate. Such a penance lies 

Impos'd on flesh and blood's infirmities ! 

"Which I myself must taste in great degree, 

And date as endless, for consortng thee. 410 

All the Immortals with my opprobry 

Are full by this time ; on their hearts so lie 

(Even to the sting of fear) my cunnings us'd, 

And wiving conversations infus'd 

Into the bosoms of the best of them 415 

With women, that the frail and mortal stream 

Doth daily ravish. All this long since done. 

Which now no more, but with effusion 

Of tears, I must in heaven so much as name, 

I have so forfeited in this my fame, 420 

And am impos'd pain of so great a kind 



A HYMN TO VENUS. 93 

For so much erring from a Goddess' mind. 

For I have put beneath my girdle here 

A son, whose sire the human mortal sphere 

Gives circumscription. But, when first the light 425 

His eyes shall comfort, Nymphs that haunt the height 

Of hills, and breasts have of most deep receipt, 

Shall be his nurses ; who inhabit now 

A hill of so vast and divine a brow, 

As man nor God can come at their retreats ; 430 

Who live long lives, and eat immortal meats, 

And with Immortals in the exercise 

Of comely dances dare contend, and rise 

Into high question which deserves the prize. 

The light Sileni mix in love with these, 435 

And, of all Spies the Prince, Argicides ; 

In well-trimm'd caves their secret meetings made. 

And with the lives of these doth life invade 

Or odorous fir-trees, or high-foreheaded oaks, 

Together taking their begetting strokes, 440 

And have their lives and deaths of equal dates, 

Trees bearing lovely and delightsome states, 

Whom Earth first feeds, that men initiates. 

On her high hills she doth their states sustain, 

And they their own heights raise as high again. 445 

Their growths together made, Nymphs call their groves 

Vow'd to th' Immortals services and loves ; 

Which men's steels therefore touch not, but let grow. 

But when wise Fates times for their fadings know, 

The fair trees still before the fair Nymphs die, 450 

The bark about them grown corrupt and dry, 

And all their boughs fall'n yield to Earth her right ; 

And then the Nymphs' lives leave the lovely night. 



94 A HYMN TO VENUS. 

" And these Nymphs iu their caves shall nurse my son, 
Whom (when in him youth's first grace is begun) 455 
The Nymphs, his nurses, shall present to thee, 
And show thee what a birth thou hast by me. 
And, sure as now I tell thee ail these things, 
When Earth hath cloth'd her plants in five fair springs, 
Myself will make return to this retreat, 460 

And bring that flow'r of thy enamour' d heat ; 
Whom when thou then seest, joy shall fire thine eyes, 
He shall so well present the Deities. 
And then into thine own care take thy son 
From his calm seat to windy Ilion, 465 

Where, if strict question be upon thee past, 
Asking what mother bore beneath her waist 
So dear a son, answer, as I afford 
Fit admonition, nor forget a word : 
They say a Nymph, call'd Calucopides, 470 

That is with others an inhabitress 
On this thy wood-crown'd hill, acknowledges 
That she his life gave. But, if thou declare 
The secret's truth, and art so mad to dare 
(In glory of thy fortunes) to approve 475 

That rich- crown' d Venus mix'd with thee in love, 
Jove, fired with my aspersion so dispread, 
Will with a wreakful lightning dart thee dead. 

" All now is told thee, comprehend it all. 
Be master of thyself, and do not call 480 

My name in question ; but with reverence vow 
To Deities' angers all the awe ye owe." 

This said, She reach'd heaven, where airs ever flow. 
475 Glory— boast. 




A HYMN TO VENUS. 95 

And so, Goddess, ever honour'd be, 

In thy so odorous Cyprian empery ! i$5 

My Muse, affecting first thy fame to raise, 

Shall make transcension now to others' praise. 

THE END OF THE FIEST HYMN TO VENUS. 



TO THE SAME 

;HE reverend, rich-crown\l, and fair Queen 
I sing, 
Venus, that owes in fate the fortressing 
Of all maritimal Cyprus ; where the force 
Of gentle-breathing Zephyr steer'd her course 
'Along the waves of the resounding sea, 5 

While, yet unborn, in that soft foam she lay 
That brought her forth; whom those fair Hours that bear 
The golden bridles joyfully stood near, 
Took up into their arms, and put on her 
Weeds of a never-corruptible wear. 10 

On her immortal head a crown they plac'd, 
Elaborate, and with all the beauties grac'd 
That gold could give it ; of a weight so great, 
That, to impose and take off, it had set 
Three handles on it, made, for endless hold, 15 

Of shining brass, and all adorn'd with gold. 
Her soft neck all with carquenets was grac'd, 
That stoop'd, and both her silver breasts embraced, 
Which even the Horn's themselves wear in resort 
To Deities' dances, and her Father's court. 20 

2 Owes — owns. 



96 BACCHUS, OR THE PIRATES. 

Grac'd at all parts, they brought to heaven her graces ; 

Whose first sight seen, all fell into embraces, 

Hugg'd her white hands, saluted, wishing all 

To wear her maiden flow'r in festival 

Of sacred Hymen, and to lead her home ; 25 

All, to all admiration, overcome 

With Cytherea with the violet crown. 

So to the Black-brow'd Sweet-spoke all renown ! 
Prepare my song, and give me, in the end, 
The victory to whose palm all contend ! 30 

So shall my Muse for ever honour thee, 
And, for thy sake, thy fair posterity. 



BACCHUS, OE THE PIEATES. 

|F Dionysus, noble Semele's Son, 
I now intend to render mention, 
As on a prominent shore his person shone, 
Like to a youth whose flow'r was newly blown, 
Bright azure tresses play'd about his head, 5 

And on his bright broad shoulders was dispread 
A purple mantle. Straight he was descried 
By certain manly pirates, that applied 
Their utmost speed to prise him, being aboard 
A well-built bark, about whose broad sides roar'd 10 
The wine-black Tyrrhene billows ; death as black 
Brought them upon him in their future wrack. 
For, soon as they had purchas'd but his view, 
Mutual signs past them, and ashore they flew, 




BACCHUS, OR THE PIRATES. 97 

Took him, and brought him instantly aboard, 15 

Soothing their hopes to have obtain'd a hoard 

Of riches with him ; and a Jove -kept king 

To such a flow'r must needs be natural spring. 

And therefore straight strong fetters they must fetch, 

To make him sure. But no such strength would stretch 

To his constrain'd pow'rs. Far flew all their bands 21 

From any least force done his feet or hands. 

But he sat casting smiles from his black eyes 

At all their worst. At which discoveries 

Made by the master, he did thus dehort 25 

All his associates : " Wretches ! Of what sort 

Hold ye the person ye assay to bind ? 

Nay, which of all the Pow'r fully-diviird 

Esteem ye him, whose worth yields so much weight 

That not our well-built bark will bear Iris freight ? so 

Or Jove himself he is, or He that bears 

The silver bow, or Neptune. Nor appears 

In him the least resemblance of a man, 

But of a strain at least Olympian. 

Come ! Make we quick dismission of his state, 35 

And on the black-soiPd earth exonerate 

Our sinking vessel of his deified load, 

Nor dare the touch of an intangible God, 

Lest winds outrageous, and of wrackful scathe, 

And smoking tempests, blow his fiery wrath." 40 

This well-spoke master the tall captain gave 

Hateful and horrible language ; calTd him slave, 

And bade him mark the prosperous gale that blew, 

28 Pow'r fully -diviri'd — Mr. Singer has wrongly altered this 
to pow' r fully -divined ; but Chapman says fully-divin'd Pow'r, 
i. e. Godhead. 

41 i. e. the tall captain replied to the master. 

H 



OS BACCHUS, OB TEE PIBATES. 

And how their vessel with her mainsail flew ; 

Bade all take arms, and said, their works requir'd 45 

The cares of men, and not of an inspird 

Pure zealous master ; his firm hopes being fir'd 

With this opinion, that they should arrive 

In JEgypt straight, or Cyprus, or where live 

Men whose brave breaths above the north wind blow ; 

Yea, and perhaps beyond their region too. 51 

And that he made no doubt but in the end 

To make his prisoner tell him every friend 

Of all his offspring, brothers, wealth, and all ; 

Since that prise, certain, must some God let fall. 55 

This said, the mast and mainsail up he drew, 
And in the mainsail" s midst a frank gale blew ; 
When all his ship took arms to brave their prise. 
But straight strange works appeared to all their eyes : 
First, sweet wine through their swift -black bark did flow? 
Of which the odours did a little blow 01 

Their fiery spirits, making th 5 air so fine 
That they in flood were there as well as wine. 
A mere immortal-making savour rose, 
Which on the ah- the Deity did impose. B6 

The seamen see'ng all, admiration seiz'd ; 
Yet instantly then- wonders were increas'd, 
For on the topsail there ran, here and there, 
A vine that grapes did in abundance bear, 
And in an instant was the ship's mainmast 70 

With an obscure-green ivy's arms embrac'd, 
That flonrish'd straight, and were with berries grac'd ; 
Of which did garlands circle every brow 
Of all the pirates, and no one knew how. 

64 Jlere — See Odyssey, Bk. vm. 115. 



BACCHUS, OR THE PIRATES. 99 

Which when they saw, they made the master steer 75 

Out to the shore ; whom Bacchus made forbear, 

With showing more wonders. On the hatches He 

Appear'd a terrible lion, horribly 

Koaring ; and in the mid-deck a male bear, 

Made with a huge mane ; making all, for fear, 80 

Crowd to the stern, about the master there, 

Whose mind he still kept dauntless and sincere, 

But on the captain rush'd and ramp'd, with force 

So rude and sudden, that his main recourse 

Was to the main-sea straight : and after him 85 

Leapt ah his mates, as trusting to their swim 

To fly foul death ; but so found what they fled, 

Being all to dolphins metamorphosed. 

The master he took ruth of, sav'd, and made 

The blessed'st man that ever tried his trade, 90 

These few words giving him : " Be confident, 

Thou God-inspired pilot, in the bent 

Of my affection, ready to requite 

Thy late-to-me-intended benefit. 

I am the roaring God of spritely wine, 95 

Whoni Semele (that did even Jove incline 

To amorous mixture, and was Cadmus' care) 

Made issue to the mighty Thunderer." 

And thus, all excellence of grace to thee, 
Son of sweet-count'nance-carry'ng Semele. 100 

I must not thee forget in least degree, 
But pray thy spirit to render so my song 
Sweet, and all ways in order'd fury strong. 




100 MARS. 



TO MAES. 

|ARS, most-strong, gold-helm'd, making- 
chariots crack ; 
Never without a shield cast on thy hack ; 
Mind-master, town-guard, with darts never driven ; 
Strong-handed, all arms, fort, and fence of heaven ; 
Father of victory with fair strokes given ; 5 

Joint surrogate of justice, lest she fall 
In unjust strifes a tyrant ; general 
Only of just men justly; that dost hear 
Fortitude's sceptre ; to heaven's fiery sphere 
Giver of circular motion, between 10 

That and the Pleiads that still wand'ring been, 
Where thy still-vehemently-flaming horse 
About the third heaven make their fiery course ; 
Helper of mortals ; hear ! — As thy fires give 
The fair and present boldnesses that strive 15 

In youth for honour, being the sweet-beam' d light 
That darts into their lives, from all their height, 
The fortitudes and fortunes found in fight ; 
So would I likewise wish to have the pow'r 
To keep off from my head thy bitter hour, 20 

And that false fire, cast from my soul's low kind, 
Stoop to the fit rule of my highest mind, 
Controlling that so eager sting of wrath 
That stirs me on still to that horrid scathe 
Of war, that God still sends to wreak his spleen 2.3 

(Even by whole tribes) of proud injurious men. 
But thou Ever-Blessed ! give me still 



DIANA. 101 

Presence of mind to put in act my will, 

Varied, as fits, to all occasion ; 

And to live free, unforc'd, unwrought upon, 30 

Beneath those laws of peace that never are 

Affected with pollutions popular 

Of unjust hurt, or loss to any one ; 

And to hear safe the burthen undergone 

Of foes inflexive, and inhuman hates, 35 

Secure from violent and harmful fates. 




TO DIANA. 

> IAN A praise, Muse, that in darts delights, 
Lives still a maid, and had nutritial rights 
With her horn-brother, the far-shooting Sun. 
That doth her all-of-gold-made chariot run 
In chase of game, from Meles that abounds 5 

In black-brow' d bulrushes, and, where her hounds 
She first uncouples, joining there her horse, 
Through Smyrna carried in most fiery course 
To grape-rich Claros ; where (in his rich home, 
And constant expectation She will come) 10 

Sits Phoebus, that the silver bow doth bear, 
To meet with Phcebe, that doth darts transfer 
As far as He his shafts. As far then be 
Thy chaste fame shot, Queen of archery ! 
Sacring my song to every Deity. 15 

14 Sacring — consecrating. The reader will remember the 
sacring-btll. 



102 



rEXUS.— PALLAS. 




TO VENUS. 

1 Cyprian Venus still my verses vow, 
Who gifts as sweet as honey doth bestow 
On all mortality ; that ever smiles, 

And rules a face that all foes reconciles ; 

Ever sustaining in her hand a flow'r 

That all desire keeps ever in her pow'r. 

Hail, then, O Queen of well-built Salamine, 
And all the state that Cyprus doth confine, 
Inform my song with that celestial fire 
That in thy beauties kindles all desire. 1 

So shall my Muse for ever honour thee, 
And any other thou commend' st to me. 




TO PALLAS. 

ALLAS Minerva only I begin 
To give my song ; that makes war's terrible din , 
Is patroness of cities, and with Mars 
Marshall'd in all the care and cure of wars, 
And in everted cities, fights, and cries. 5 

But never doth herself set down or rise 
Before a city, but at both times She 
All injur'd people sets on foot and free. 

Give, with thy war's force, fortune then to me, 
And, with thy wisdom's force, felicity. 10 



JUNO— CERES.— CYBELE. 



103 




TO JUNO. 

j ATUKlS I A, and her throne of gold, I sing, 
That was of Rhea the eternal spring, 
And empress of a beauty never jet 
Equall'd in height of tincture. Of the great 
Saturnius (breaking air in awful noise) 5 

The far-fam'd wife and sister; whom in joys 
Of high Olympus all the Blessed love, 
And honour equal with unequalTd Jove. 




TO CEKES. 

fcHE rich-hair'd Ceres I assay to sing ; 
A Goddess, in whose grace the natural spring 
Of serious majesty itself is seen ; 
And of the wedded, yet in grace still green, 
Proserpina, her daughter, that displays 5 

A beauty casting every way her rays. 

All honour to thee, Goddess ! Keep this town ; 
And take thou chief charge of my song's renown ! 



TO THE MOTHER OF THE GODS. 

|OTHER of all, both Gods and men, commend, 
Muse, whose fair form did from Jove 
descend ; 

That doth with cymbal sounds delight her life, 
And tremulous divisions of the fife ; 




104 HERCULES. 

Love's dreadful lions' roars, and wolves' hoarse howls, 5 

Sylvan retreats, and hills, whose hollow knolls 

Raise repercussive sounds about her ears. 

And so may honour ever crown thy years 

With all-else Goddesses, and ever be 

Exalted in the Muses' harmony ! 10 




TO LION-HEARTED HERCULES. 

'LCIDES, forcefullest of all the brood 
Of men enforc'd with need of earthy food, 
My Muse shall memorise ; the son of Jove, 
"Whom, in fair-seated Thebes (commix'd in love 
With great heaven's sable-cloud-assembling State) 5 
Alcmena bore to him ; and who, in date 
Of days forepast, through all the sea was sent, 
And Earth's inenarrable continent, 
To acts that king Eurystheus had decreed ; 
Did many a petulant and imperious deed 10 

Himself, and therefore suffer'd many a toil ; 
Yet now inhabits the illustrious soil 
Of white Olympus, and delights his life 
With still-young Hebe, his well-ankled wife. 

Hail, King, and Son of Jove ! Vouchsafe thou me 15 
Virtue, and, her effect, felicity ! 




^SCULAPIUS.—TYNDARIDES. 105 



TO ^SCTJLAPIUS. 

*ITH iEsculapius, the physician, 
That cur'dall sickness, and was Phoebus' son, 
My Muse makes entry ; to whose life gave 
yield 
Divine Coronis in the Dotian field, 
(King Phlegius' daughter) who much joy on men 5 
Conferred, in dear ease of their irksome pain. 
For which, my salutation, worthy king, 
And vows to thee paid, ever when I sing ! 



TO CASTOK AM) POLLUX. 

■ ASTOE and Pollux, the Tyndarides, 
Sweet Muse illustrate ; that their essences 
Fetch from the high forms of Olympian Jove, 
And were the fair fruits of bright Leda's love, 
Which she produc'd beneath the sacred shade 5 

Of steep Taygetus, being subdu'd, and made 
To serve th' affections of the Thunderer. 
And so all grace to you, whom all aver 
(For skill in horses, and their manage given) 
To be the bravest horsemen under heaven ! 10 

6 Taygetus. — It is hardly necessary to remind the reader that 
Chapman's quantity is wrong, as is often the case. 




106 MERCURY.— PAN. 



TO MERCURY. 




[gERMES I honour, the Cyllenian Spy, 
i f King of Cyllenia, and of Arcady 
yP With flocks abounding ; and the Messenger 
Of all th' Immortals, that doth still infer 
Profits of infinite value to their store ; 5 

Whom to Saturnius bashful Maia bore, 
Daughter of Atlas, and did therefore fly 
Of all th' Immortals the society, 
To that dark cave, where, in the dead of night, 
Jove join'd with her in love's divine delight, 10 

When golden sleep shut Juno's jealous eye, 
Whose arms had wrists as white as ivory, 
From whom, and all, both men and Gods beside, 
The fair-hair'd nymph her scape kept undescried. 

Joy to the Jove-got then, and Maia's care, 15 

'Twixt men and Gods the general Messenger, 
Giver of good grace, gladness, and the flood 
Of all that men or Gods account their good ! 

14 Scape.— See Iliad, 11. 312. 



TO PAN. 

* 
ING, Muse, this chief of Hermes' love-got joys, 

Goat-footed, two-horn'd, amorous of noise, 

That through the fair greens, all adorn'd 

with trees, 




' TO PAN. 107 

Together goes with Nymphs, whose nimble knees 

Can every dance foot, that affect to scale 5 

The most inaccessible tops of all 

Uprightest rocks, and ever use to call 

On Pan, the bright-hair'd God of pastoral ; 

Who yet is lean and loveless, and doth owe 

By lot all loftiest mountains crown'd with snow ; 10 

All tops of hills, and cliffy highnesses, 

All sylvan copses, and the fortresses 

Of thorniest queaches, here and there doth rove, 

And sometimes, by allurement of his love, 

Will wade the wat'ry softnesses. Sometimes 15 

(In quite oppos'd capriccios) he climbs 

The hardest rocks, and highest, every way 

Running their ridges. Often will convey 

Himself up to a watch-tow Ys top, where sheep 

Have their observance. Oft through hills as steep 20 

His goats he runs upon, and never rests. 

Then turns he head, and flys on savage beasts, 

Mad of their slaughters ; so most sharp an eye 

Setting upon them, as his beams let fly 

Through all their thickest tapistries. And then 25 

(When Hesp'rus calls to fold the flocks of men) 

From the green clossets of his loftiest reeds 

He rushes forth, and joy with song he feeds. 

When, under shadow of their motions set, 

He plays a verse forth so profoundly sweet, 30 

As not the bird that in the flow'ry spring, 

Amidst the leaves set, makes the thickets ring 

9 Owe — own. 

13 Queaches — thickets. See Odyssey, Bk. xix. 610. 

25 Tapistries — i. e. hiding-places, where they tapish or hide. 

27 Clossets — closes. The word should be noted. 



108 TO PAN. 

Of her sour sorrows, sweeten'd with her song, 

Runs her divisions varied so and strong. 

And then the sweet-voic'd Nymphs that crown his 

mountains 35 

(Flock'd round about the deep -black- water 'd fountains) 
Fall in with their contention of song. 
To which the echoes all the hills along 
Their repercussions add. Then here and there 
(Plac'd in the midst) the God the guide doth bear 40 
Of all their dances, winding in and out, 
A lynce's hide, besprinkled round about 
With blood, cast on his shoulders. And thus He, 
"With well-made songs, maintains th' alacrity 
Of his free mind, in silken meadows crown'd 4o 

"With hyacinths and saffrons, that abound 
In sweet-breath' d odours, that th' unnumber'd grass 
(Besides their scents) give as through all they pass. 
And these, in all their pleasures, ever raise 
The blessed Gods' and long Olympus' praise : 50 

Like zealous Hermes, who of all I said 
Most profits up to all the Gods convey'd. 
Who, likewise, came into th' Arcadian state, 
(That's rich in fountains, and all celebrate 
For nurse of flocks,) where He had vow'd a grove 55 
(Surnam'd Cyllenius) to his Godhead's love. 
Yet even himself (although a God he were) 
Clad in a squalid sheepskin, govern'd there 
A mortal's sheep. For soft love ent'ring him 
Conform' d his state to his conceited trim, 60 

And made him long, in an extreme degree, 
T' enjoy the fair-hair'd virgin Dryope. 
Which ere he could, she made him consummate 



VULCAN. 109 

The flourishing rite of Hymen's honour'd state ; 

And brought him such a piece of progeny, 65 

As show'd, at first sight, monstrous to the eye, 

Goat-footed, two-horn'd, full of noise even then, 

And (opposite quite to other childeren) 

Told, in sweet laughter, he ought death no tear. 

Yet straight his mother start, and fled, in fear, to 

The sight of so unsatisfying a thing, 

In whose face put forth such a bristled spring. 

Yet the most useful Mercury embrac'd, 

And took into his arms, his homely-fac'd, 

Beyond all measure joyful with his sight ; 75 

And up to heaven with him made instant flight, 

Wrapp'd in the warm skin of a mountain hare, 

Set him by Jove, and made most merry fare 

To all the Deities else with his son's sight ; 

Which most of all fill'd Bacchus with delight ; so 

And Pan they call'd him, since he brought to all 

Of mirth so rare and full a festival. 

And thus all honour to the shepherds' King, 
For sacrifice to thee my Muse shall sing ! 

69 Ought— owed. 70 Start— the past tense. 



TO VULCAN. 

I EAISE Vulcan, now Muse; whom fame gives 
the prize 
For depth and facture of all forge-devise ; 
Who, with the sky-ey'd Pallas, first did give 
Men rules of buildings, that before did live 




110 



PH(EB US.— NEPTUNE. 



In caves and dens, and hills, like savage beasts ; 5 

But now, by art-fam'd Vulcan's interests 

In all their civil industries, ways clear 

Through th' all-things-bringing-to-their-ends (the year) 

They work out to their ages' ends, at ease 

Lodg'd in safe roofs from Winter's utmost prease. 10 

Eut, Yulcan, stand propitious to me, 
Virtue safe granting, and felicity ! 




TO PHCEBUS. 

PHCEBUS! Even the swan from forth 

II her 



• wings, 
Jumping her proyning-bank, thee sweetly 
sings, 
By bright Peneus' whirl-pit-making streams. 
Thee, that thy lute mak'st sound so to thy beams, 
Thee, first and last, the sweet-voic'd singer still 5 

Sings, for thy song's all-songs-transcending skill. 
Thy pleasure, then, shall my song still supply, 
And so salutes thee King of Poesy. 

2 Proyning bank — where she preens or proins herself. 



TO NEPTUNE. 

1 \ EPTUNE, the mighty marine God, I sing, 
Earth's mover, and the fruitless ocean's King, 
That Helicon and th'iEgean deeps dost hold. 
O thou Earth-shaker ! Thy command two-fold 





JOVE.— VESTA. Ill 

The Gods have sorted ; making thee of horses 5 

The awful tamer, and of naval forces 

The sure preserver. Hail, O Saturn's hirth ! 

"Whose graceful green hair circles all the earth. 

Bear a benign mind ; and thy helpful hand 

Lend all submitted to thy dread command. 10 



TO JOVE. 

j OVE now I sing, the greatest and the best 
Of all these Pow'rs that are with Deity blest, 
That far-off doth his dreadful voice diffuse, 
And, being King of all, doth all conduce 
To all their ends. Who (shut from all Gods else 5 
With Themis, that the laws of all things tells) 
Their fit composures to their times doth call, 
Weds them together, and preserves this all. 

Grace then, O far-heard Jove, the grace thou'st given, 
Most Glorious, and most Great of Earth and Heaven ! 10 



TO YESTA. 

iv-ESTA, that as a servant oversees 

King Phoebus' hallow'd house, in all degrees 
Of guide about it, on the sacred shore 
Of heavenly Pythos, and hast evermore 
Pich balms distilling from thy odorous hair, 5 

Grace this house with thy housewifely repair ! 





112 APOLLO.— BACCHUS. 

Enter, and bring a mind that most may move, 
Conferring even, the great in counsels, Jove ; 
And let my verse taste of your either's love. 



TO THE MUSES AJSTD APOLLO. 

i 

fcHE Muses, Jove, and Phoebus, now I sing ; 

For from the far- off- shooting Phoebus spring 
All poets and musicians, and from Jove 
Th' ascents of kings. The man the Muses love, 
Eelicity blesses ; elocution's choice 5 

In syrup lay'ng of sweetest breath his voice. 

Hail, Seed of Jove, my song your honours give, 
And so in mine shall yours and others' live. 



TO BACCHUS. 

tVY-crown'd Bacchus iterate in thy praises, 
O Muse ; whose voice all loftiest echoes raises, 
And he with all th' illustrious Seed of Jove 
Is join'd in honour, being the fruit of love 
To him, and Semele the-great-in-graces ; 5 

And from the King his father's kind embraces 
By fair-hair' d Nymphs was taken to the dales 
Of Xyssa, and with curious festivals 
Given his fair grought, far from his father's view, 
In caves from whence eternal odours flew, io 

And in high number of the Deities plac'd. 
9 Grought— growth. 




TO DIANA. 113 

Yet when the many-hymn-given God had past 

His Nurses' cares, in ivies and in bays 

All over thicketed, his varied ways 

To sylvan coverts evermore He took, 15 

With all his Nurses, whose shrill voices shook 

Thickets, in which could no foot's entry fall, 

And he himself made captain of them all. 

And so, O grape -abounding Bacchus, be 
Ever saluted by my Muse and me ! so 

Give us to spend with spirit our hours out here, 
And e^ery hour extend to many a year. 



TO DIAXA. 

I AX A, that the golden spindle moves, 
And lofty sounds as well as Bacchus loves, 
A bashful virgin, and of fearful hearts 
The death- affecter with delighted darts, 
By sire and mother Phoebus' sister born, 5 

Whose thigh the golden falchion doth adorn, 
I sing ; who likewise over hills of shade 
And promontories that vast winds invade, 
Amorous of hunting, bends her all-gold bow. 
And sigh-begetting arrows doth bestow 10 

In fates so dreadful that the hill-tops quake, 
And bristled woods their leafy foreheads shake, 
Horrors invade earth, and [the] fishy seas 
Impassion'd furies ; nothing can appease 
The dying brays of beasts. And her delight 15 

In so much death affects so with affright 




114 PALLAS. 

all inanimate natures ; for, while she 
Her - . their general progeny 

She all ways turns upon to all their banes. 

when her fiery pleasures find their wanes, 20 

Her yielding bow unbent, to th' ample bouse, 

rich and populous, 
Of her dear brother, her retreats advance. 
"Where th" instauration of delightsome dance 
Amongst the Muses and the Graces she 25 

- form : in which herself the regency 
(Her unbent bow hung up, and casting on 
A gracious robe) assumes, and first sets gone 
try ; to which all send forth 

; heavenly voices, and advance the worth 
Of her fair-ankled mother, since to light 
She children- brought the far most exquisite 
In counsels and performances of all 
The God hat grace the heavenly hall. 

Hail then, Latona's fair-hair'd Seed, and Jove's ! 35 
My song shall ever call to mind your loves. 



TO PALLAS. 

ALLA>- Minerva's deity, the renown'd, 
-^ My Muse in her variety must resound ; 
flighty in councils ; whose illustrous eyes 
In all resemblance represent the skies. 
; verend maid of an inflexible mind ; 
In spirit and person strong ; of triple kind ; 
Faun in that just laws maintain ; 




TO VESTA AND MERCURY. 115 

Of Jove, the-great-in-councils, very brain 

Took prime existence, his unbounded brows 

Could not contain her, such impetuous throes 10 

Her birth gave way to, that abroad she flew, 

And stood, in gold arni'd, in her Father's view, 

Shaking her sharp lance. All Olympus shook 

So terribly beneath her, that it took 

Up in amazes all the Deities there. is 

All earth resounded with vociferous fear. 

The sea was put up all in purple waves, 

And settled suddenly her rudest raves. 

Hyperion's radiant son his swiffc-hov'd steeds 

A mighty time stay'd, till her arming weeds, 20 

As glorious as the Gods', the blue-ey'd Maid 

Took from her deathless shoulders ; but then stay'd 

All these distempers, and heaven's counsellor, Jove, 

Rejoic'd that all things else his stay could move. 

So I salute thee still ; and still in praise 25 

Thy fame, and others', shall my memory raise. 



TO VESTA AND MEKCUKY. 

jESTA I sing, who, in bequest of fate, 
Art sorted out an everlasting state 
In all th' Immortals' high-built roofs, and all 

Those of earth- dwelling men, as general 

And ancient honours given thee for thy gift 5 

Of free-liv'd chastity, and precious thrift. 

Nor can there amongst mortals banquets be, 

In which, both first and last, they give not thee 




116 TO EARTH. 

Their endless gratitudes in pour'd-out wine, 

As gracious sacrifice to thy divine 10 

And useful virtues ; being invok'd by all, 

Before the least taste of their festival 

In wine or food affect their appetites. 

And Thou, that of th' adorn'd-with-all-delights 

Art the most useful angel, born a God u 

Of Jove and Maia, of heaven's golden rod 

The sole sustainer, and hast pow'r to bless 

With all good all men, great Argicides, 

Inhabit all good houses, see'ng no wants 

Of mutual minds' love in th' inhabitants, 20 

Join in kind blessing with the bashful maid 

And all-lov'd virgin, Vesta ; either's aid 

Combin'd in every hospitable house ; 

Both being best seen in all the gracious 

House-works of mortals. Jointly follow then, 25 

Even from their youths, the minds of dames and men. 

Hail then, old Daughter of the oldest God, 
And thou Great Bearer of Heaven's golden rod ! 
Yet not to you alone my vows belong, 
Others as well claim th' homage of my song. 30 

15 Angel— messenger, ayy8\o<;. 



TO EARTH, THE MOTHER OF ALL. 

[ OTHER of all things, the well-founded Earth, 
My Muse shall memorize ; who all the birth 
Gives food that all her upper regions breed, 
All that in her divine diffusions feed 




TO EARTH, 117 

In under continents, all those that live 5 

In all the seas, and all the air doth give 
Wing'd expeditions, of thy bounties eat ; 
Fair children, and fair fruits, thy labour's sweat. 
• O great in reverence; and referr'd to thee, 
For life and death is all the pedigree 10 

Of mortal humans. Happy then is he 
Whom the innate propensions of thy mind 
Stand bent to honour. He shall all things find 
In all abundance ; all his pastures yield 
Herds in all plenties ; all his roofs are fill'd 15 

With rich possessions ; he, in all the sway 
Of laws best order'd, cuts out his own way 
In cities shining with delicious dames, 
And takes his choice of all those striving flames ; 
High happiness and riches, like his train, 20 

Follow his fortunes, with delights that reign 
In all their princes ; glory invests his sons ; 
His daughters, with their crown'd selections 
Of all the city, frolic through the meads, 
And every one her call'd-for dances treads 25 

Along the soft-flow'r of the claver-grass. 
All this, with all those, ever comes to pass, 
That thy love blesses, Goddess full of grace, 
And treasurous Angel t' all the human race. 

Hail, then, Great Mother of the Deified Kind, 30 
Wife to the cope of stars ! Sustain a mind 
Propitious to me for my praise, and give 
(Answering my mind) my vows fit means to live. 

26 Claver-grass, — Mr. Singer has printed clover. I retain 
the old orthography, though Halliwell says it is only a North- 
country provincialism for clover. 




US TO THE SUN. 



TO THE SUN". 

I HE radiant Sim's divine renown diffuse, 
Jove's daughter, great Calliope, my Muse ; 
Whom ox-ey'd Euryphaessa gave birth 
To the bright Seed of starry Heaven and Earth. 
For the far-fam'd Hyperion took to wife 5 

His sister Euryphaessa, that life 
Of his high race gave to these lovely three : 
Aurora, with the rosy-wrists ; and She 
That owns th' enamouring tresses, the bright Moon ; 
Together with the never-wearied Sun, 10 

Who (his horse mounting) gives both mortals light 
And all th' Immortals. Even to horror, bright 
A blaze burns from his golden burgonet, 
"\Miich to behold exceeds the sharpest set 
Of any eye's intention, beams so clear 15 

It all ways pours abroad. The glorious cheer 
Of his far- shining face up to his crown 
Casts circular radiance, that comes streaming down 
About his temples, his bright cheeks, and all, 
Retaining the refulgence of then fall. 20 

About his bosom flows so fine a weed 
As doth the thinness of the wind exceed 
In rich context ; beneath whose deep folds fly 
His masculine horses round about the sky, 
Till in this hemisphere he renders stay 25 

T ? his gold-yok'd coach and coursers ; and his way, 

13 Burgonet — generally spelt burgemet, a species of helmet. 



TO THE MOON. 119 

Let down by heaven, the heavenly coachman makes 
Down to the ocean, where his rest he takes. 

My salutations then, fair King, receive, 
And in propitious returns relieve 30 

My life with mind-fit means ; and then from thee, 
And all the race of complete Deity, 
My song* shall celebrate those half-god States, 
That yet sad death's condition circulates, 
And whose brave acts the Gods show men that they 35 
As brave may aim at, since they can but die. 




TO THE MOON. 

I HE Moon, now, Muses, teach me to resound, 
Whose wide wings measure such a world of 
ground ; 

Jove's daughter, deck'd with the mellifluous tongue, 
And seen in all the sacred art of song. 
Whose deathless brows when she from heaven displays, 
All earth she wraps up in her orient rays. 6 

A heaven of ornament in earth is rais'd 
When her beams rise. The subtle air is sais'd 
Of delicate splendour from her crown of gold. 
And when her silver bosom is extoll'd, 10 

Wash'd in the ocean, in day's equall'd noon 
Is midnight seated ; but when she puts on 
Her far-off-sprinkling-lustre evening weeds, 
(The month in two cut ; her high-breasted steeds 

8 Sais'd — seised, put in possession. 



120 TO CASTOR AND POLLUX. 

Man'd all with curl'd flames, put in coach and all, 15 

Her huge orb fill'd,) her whole trims then exhale 

Unspeakable splendours from the glorious skj. 

And out of that state mortal men imply 

Many predictions. And with her then, 

In love mix'd, lay the King of Gods and men ; 20 

By whom made fruitful, she Pandea bore, 

And added her state to th' Immortal Store. 

Hail, Queen, and Goddess, th' ivory- wristed Moon 

Divine, prompt, fair-hair' d ! With thy grace begun, 

My Muse shall forth, and celebrate the praise 25 

Of men whose states the Deities did raise 

To semi-deities ; whose deeds t' endless date 

Muse-lov'd and sweet-sung poets celebrate. 



TO CASTOE AND POLLUX. 

I OVE'Sfair Sons, father'dby th' Oebalianking, 
Muses well- worth-allmen'sbeholdings, sing! 
The dear birth that bright-ankl'd Leda bore ; 
Horse-taming Castor, and, the conqueror 
Of tooth-tongu'd Momus, Pollux ; whom beneath 5 
Steep-brow'd Taygetus she gave half-god breath, 
In love mix'd with the black- clouds King of Heaven ; 
Who, both of men and ships, being tempest driven, 
When Winter's wrathful empire is in force 
Upon th' implacable seas, preserve the course. 10 

For when the gusts begin, if near the shore, 
The seamen leave their ship, and, evermore 
Bearing two milk-white lambs aboard, they now 




TO MEN OF HOSPITALITY. 121 

Kill them ashore, and to Jove's issue vow, 

When though their ship, in height of all the roar io 

The winds and waves confound, can live no more 

In all their hopes, then suddenly appear 

Jove's saving Sons, who Loth their hodies bear 

'Twixt yellow wings down from the sparkling pole, 

Who straight the rage of those rude winds control, 20 

And all the high-waves couch into the breast 

Of th' hoary seas. All which sweet signs of rest 

To seamen's labours their glad souls conceive, 

And end to all their irksome grievance give. 

So, once more, to the swift-horse-riding race 25 

Of royal Tyndarus, eternal grace ! 



TO MEN OF HOSPITALITY. 

> E TERENCE a man with use propitious 
That hospitable rites wants 5 and a house 
(You of this city with the seat of state 
To ox-ey'd Juno vow'd) yet situate 
Near Pluto's region. At the extreme base 
Of whose so high-hair'd city, from the race 
Of blue-wav'd Hebrus lovely fluent, grac'd 
With Jove's begetting, you divine cups taste. 





CERTAIN EPIGRAMS AND OTHER 
POEMS OF HOMER. 

TO CUMA. 

END hospitable rites and house-respect, 
You that the virgin with the fair eyes 

deckt 
Make fautress of your stately- seated town, 
At foot of Sardes, with the high-hair'd crown, 
Inhabiting rich Cuma ; where ye taste 5 

Of Hermus' heavenly fluent, all embrac'd 
By curl'd-head whirlpits ; and whose waters move 
From the divine seed of immortal Jove. 




IN HIS RETURN TO CUMA. 

WIFTLY my feet sustain me to the town, 
Where men inhabit whom due honours 
crown, 

Whose minds with free -given faculties are mov'd, 
And whose grave counsels best of best approv'd. 





EPIGRAMS, 123 

UPON THE SEPULCHRE OF MIDUS, 

CUT IN BRASS, IN THE FIGURE OF A VIRGIN. 

MAID of brass I am, infixed here 
T' eternize honest Midus' sepulchre ; 
And while the stream her fluent seedreceives, 
And steep trees curl their verdant brows with leaves, 
While Phoebus rais'd above the earth gives sight, 5 
And th' humorous Moon takes lustre from his light, 
While floods bear waves, and seas shall wash the shore, 
At this his sepulchre, whom all deplore, 
I'll constantly abide ; all passers by 
Informing, " Here doth honest Midus He." 10 

6 Humorous — moist. 



CUMA 

REFUSING HIS OFFER TO ETERNIZE THEIR STATE, 
THOUGH BROUGHT THITHER BY THE MUSES. 

TO what fate hath Father Jove given o'er 
My friendless life, born ever to be poor ! 
While in my infant state he pleas'dto save me, 
Milk on my reverend mother's knees he gave me, 
In delicate and curious nursery ; 5 

iEolian Smyrna, seated near the sea, 
(Of glorious empire, and whose bright sides 
Sacred Meletus' silver current glides,) 




124 EPIGRAMS. 

Being native seat to me. Which, in the force 

Of far-past time, the breakers of wild horse, 10 

Phriconia's noble nation, girt with tow'rs ; 

Whose youth in fight put on with fiery pow'rs. 

From hence, the Muse-maids, Jove's illustrous Seed, 

Impelling me, I made impetuous speed, 

And went with them to Cuma, with intent 15 

T' eternize all the sacred continent 

And state of Cuma. They, in proud ascent 

From off their bench, refus'd with usage fierce 

The sacred voice which I aver is verse. 

Their follies, yet, and madness borne by me, 20 

Shall by some pow'r be thought on futurely, 

To wreak of him whoever, whose tongue sought 

With false impair my fall. What fate God brought 

Upon my birth I'll bear with any pain, 

But undeserv'd defame unfelt sustain. 25 

Nor feels my person (dear to me though poor) 

Any great lust to linger any more 

In Cuma's holy highways ; but my mind 

(No thought impair' d, for cares of any kind 

Borne in my body) rather vows to try so 

The influence of any other sky, 

And spirits of people bred in any land 

Of ne'er so slender and obscure command. 



EPIGRAMS. 



125 



AN ASSAY OF HIS BEGUN ILIADS. 

£LION, and all the brave -horse -breeding soil, 
Dardania, I sing ; that many a toil 
Impos'd upon the mighty Grecian pow'rs, 
AMio were of Mars the manly servitours. 




TO THESTOK'S SOX,* 

INQUISITIVE OF HOMER ABOUT THE CAUSES OF THINGS. 

[HESTOKIDES ! of all the skills unknown 
To errant mortals, there remains not one 
Of more inscrutable affair to find 
Than is the true state of a human mind. 





TO NEPTUNE. 

EAE, pow'rful Neptune, that shak'st earth 
in ire, 
| King of the great green, where dance all 
the quire 

* Homer intimated, in this his answer to Thestorides, a will 
to have him learn the knowledge of himself, before he inquired 
so curiously the causes of other things. And from hence had 
the great peripatetic, Themistius, his most grave epiphoneme, 
Anima quce seipsam ignorat, quid sciret ipsa de aliis ? And, there- 
fore, according to Aristotle, advises all philosophical students 
to begin with that study.— Chapman. 



epigea:. 

Of fair-hair'd Helicon ; give prosperous ga 

And good pass, to these guiders of our sails, 

Their voyage rendering happily directed, 5 

And their return with no ill fate affected. 

Grant likewise at rough Mimas* lowest roc 

Whose strength up to her tops preempt rocks shoots, 

My pass _ safe arrival ; and tha: I 

My bashful disposition may c: it 

To pious men. and wreak myself upon 

The man whose verbal circumvention 

In me did wrong t'hospitio 

And th ? hospitable table violate. 



TO THE CITY EEYTHILEA. 

>OKSHEPFUL Earth. Giver of all things 
good ! 

Giver of even felicity ; whose flood 
mind all- spa in honey dew; 

That to some men dost infinite kindne- afa 
To others that despise thee art a shr- s 

And giv\st them gamester's galls : who, once their main 
Lost with an ill chance, fare like abjects slain. 



TO MAPJXEI- 

[ E wave-trod watermen, as ill as - 
That all the earth in infelic: 
Of rapine plunges ; who upon jour fere 
d-like-ravenous as cormorants are; 





EPIGRAMS. 127 

The lives ye lead, but in the worst degree, 5 

Not to be envied more than misery ; 

Take shame, and fear the indignation 

Of Him that thunders from the highest throne, 

Hospitious Jove, who, at the back, prepares 

Pains of abhorr'd effect of him that dares 10 

The pieties break of his hospitious squares. 




THE PINE. 

; NY tree else bears better fruit than thee, 
That Ida's tops sustain, where every tree 
Bears up in air such perspirable heights, 
And in which caves and sinuous receipts 
Creep in such great abundance. For about 
Thy roots, that ever all thy fruits put out, 
As nourish'd by them, equal with thy fruits, 
Pour Mars's iron-mines their accurs'd pursuits. 
So that when any earth-encroaching man, 
Of all the martial brood Cebrenian, 
Plead need of iron, they are certain still 
About thy roots to satiate every will. 



128 EPIGRAMS. 




TO GLAUCUS, 

WHO WAS SO MISERABLY SPARING THAT HE FEARED 
ALL MEN'S ACCESS TO HIM. 

?LAUCUS ! though wise enough, yet one 
word more 
Let my advice add to thy wisdom's store, 
For 'twill be better so : Before thy door 
Give still thy mastiffs meat, that will be sure 
To lie there, therefore, still, and not endure i 

(With waylaid ears) the softest foot can fall, 
But men and beasts make fly thee and thy stall. 



AGAINST THE SAMIAN MINISTRESS, 

OE NUN. 

J EAR me, O Goddess, that invoke thine ear, 
j f Thou that dost feed and form the youthful 
year, 

And grant that this dame may the loves refuse, 
And beds, of young men, and affect to use 
Humans whose temples hoary hairs distain, 5 

Whose pow'rs are passing coy, whose wills would fain. 




EPIGRAMS. 129 




WRITTEN OX THE COUNCIL CHAMBER. 

;F men, sons are the crowns of cities' tow'rs ; 
Of pastures, horse are the most beauteous 
flow'rs ; 

Of seas, ships are the grace ; and money still 
With trains and titles doth the family fill. 
But royal counsellors, in council set, 5 

Are ornaments past all, as clearly great 
As houses are that shining fires enfold, 
Superior far to houses nak'd and cold. 




THE FURNACE CALLED IN TO SING 
BY POTTERS. 

[ F ye deal freely, my fiery friends, 
Q As ye assure, I'll sing, and serve your ends. 
Pallas, vouchsafe thou here invoked accv 
Impose thy hand upon this Forge, and bless 
All cups these artists earn so, that they may 5 

Look black still with their depth, and every way 
Give all their vessels a most sacred sale. 
Make all well-burn'd ; and estimation call 
Up to their prices. Let them market well. 
And in all highways in abundance sell, m 



130 EPIGRAM 

riches to their utmost wish u 
And. as thou niak'st them rich, so make me wit 

But if ye now turn all to inipuck 
And think to pay with lies my p 

Then will I summ r Furnace all 15 

Hell's harnifiilTst spirits : Maragus I'll call, 
Sd aetes, Aal -:■::. and Omadamus. 
Who ills against your ait innumerous 
3, m\ . vad multijO 

ie, Pallas, then, and all command to lie M 

Infesting forge and house with lire, till all 
Tumble together^ and to ashes fall, 

I in tears as small. 
And as a horse-cheek chides his foaming 
So let this Forge murmur in fire and flit, 
And all this stuff to ashy ruins run. 
And thou. O Circe, daughter of the Sun, 

: -many-poison-mixer, come, and pour 
Thy cmelTst poisons on this Potters' floor, 
Shivering the:: r and themselves affect 3 .■ 

With all the mischiefs possible to direct 
'Gainst all their beings, urg'd by all thy fie 
Let Chiron likewise come ; and all those friends 

Centaurs) that Alcides* fingers fled, 
And all the rest loo that his hand strook dead, 35 

(Their ghosts excited) come, and macerate 

ae earthen men ; and yet with further fate 
Affect their Furnace ; all their tear-burst ej 
Seeing and mourning for their miseries, 
While I look on, and laugh their blasted art 40 

And them to ruin. Lastly, if apart 



EPIGRAMS. 131 

Any lies lurking, and sees yet, his face 

Into a coal let th ? angry fire embrace, 

That all may learn by them, in all their lust. 

To dare deeds great, to see them great and just. 



EIEESIOXE, OR, THE OLIVE BRAXCH. 






Jv- 



^?$HE turrets of a man of infinite might, 
y^S Of infinite action, substance infinite, 



'•? 



^^Lk5^ We make access to ; whose whole being 

rebounds 
From earth to heaven, and nought but bliss resounds. 
Give entry then, ye doors ; more riches yet 5 

Shall enter with me ; all the Graces met 
In joy of their fruition, perfect peace 
Confirming all ; all crown'd with such increase, 
That every empty vessel in your house 
May stand replete with all things precious ; 10 

Elaborate Ceres may your larders fill 
With all dear delicates, and serve in still : 
May for your son a wife make wish'd approach 
Into your tow'rs, and rapt in in her coach 
With strong-kneed mules ; may yet her state prove staid, 
With honour'd housewiferies ; her fair hand laid 16 
To artful loomworks ; and her nak'd feet tread 
The gum of amber to a golden bead. 

But I'll return ; return, and yet not press 
Your bounties now assay'd with oft access, 20 

Once a year only, as the swallow prates 
Before the wealthy Spring's wide open gates. 



132 EPIGRAMS. 

Meantime I stand at yours, nor purpose stay 
More time t' entreat. Give, or not give, away 
My feet shall bear me, that did never come 25 

With any thought to make your house my home. 



TO CEKTAIN FISHEE BOYS 

PLEASING HIM WITH INGENIOUS RIDDLES. 

I ET from the bloods even of your self-like sires 
Are you descended, that could make ye heirs 
To no huge hoards of coin, nor leave ye able 
To feed flocks of innumerable rabble. 



THE END OF ALL THE ENDLESS WORKS OF HOMER. 






$5ifcl PSIo ^^ wor& £A<x£ / was 6om to do is done ! 
Glory to Him that the conclusion 
Makes the beginning of my life ; and never 
Let me be said to live, till I live ever. 

Where's the outliving of my fortunes then, s 

Ye errant vapours of Fame's Lemean fen, 
That, like possessed storms, blast all not in herd 
With your abhorr'd heads ; who, because cashier } d 
By men for monsters, think men monsters all, 
That are not of your pied Hood and your Hall, 10 
When you are nothing but the scum of things, 
And must be cast off; drones, that have no stings ; 
Nor any more soul than a stone hath ivings ? 

Avaunt, ye hags I Your hates and scandals are 
The crowns and comforts of a good man's care ; 15 

By whose impartial perpendicular, 
All is extuberance, and excretion all, 
That you your ornaments and glories call. 
Your wry mouths censure right ! Your blistered tongues, 
That lick but itches ! And whose ulcerous lungs 20 
Come up at all things permanent and sound ! 

you, like flies in dregs, in humours drown 'd! 
Your loves, like atoms, lost in gloomy air, 

1 would not retrieve with a wither d hair. 



134 

Hate, and cast still your stings then, for your kisses 25 
Betray but truth, and your applauds are hisses. 

To see our supercilious wizards frown, 
TJieir faces falVn like fogs, and coming down, 
Stinking the sun out, makes me shine the more ; 
And like a check* d flood bear above the shore, 30 

That their profane opinions fain would set 
To what they see not, know not, nor can let. 
Yet then our learn' d men with their torrents come, 
Roaring from their forced hills, all crown *d with foam, 
That one not taught like them, should learn to know 35 
Their Greek roots, and from thence the groves that grow, 
Casting such rich shades from great Homer's wings, 
That first and last command the Muses' springs. 
Though he's best scholar, that, through pains and vows 
Made his own master only, all things knows. 40 

Nor pleads my poor skill form, or learned place, 
But dauntless labour, constant prayer, and grace. 
And what's all their skill, but vast varied reading ? 
As if broad-beaten highways had the leading 
To Truth's abstract, and narrow path, and pit; 45 
Found in no walk of any worldly wit. 
And without Truth, all's only sleight of hand, 
Or our law -learning in a foreign land, 
Embroidery spent on cobwebs, braggart show 
Of men that all things learn, and nothing know. 50 
For ostentation humble Truth still flies, 
And all confederate fashionists defies. 
And as some sharp-brow' d doctor, English born, 
In much learn' d Latin idioms can adorn 
A verse with rare attractions, yet become 55 

His English Muse like an Arachnean loom, 



135 

Wrought spite of Pallas, and therein bewrays 
More tongue than truth, begs, and adopts his bays ; 
So Ostentation, be he never so 

Larded with labour to suborn his show, 60 

Shall sooth within him but a bastard soul, 
No more heaven heiring than, Earth's son, the mole. 
But as in dead calms emptiest smokes arise, 
Unchecked and free, up straight into the skies ; 
So drowsy Peace, that in her humour steeps 65 

All she affects, lets such rise while she sleeps. 
Many, and most men, have of wealth least store, 
But none the gracious shame that fits the poor. 
So most learn 'd men enough are ignorant, 
But few the grace have to confess their want, to 

Till lives and learnings come concomitant. 
Far from men's knowledges their lives' '-acts flow ; 
Vainglorious acts then vain prove all they know. 
As night the life-inclining stars best shows, 
So lives obscure the starriest souls disclose. 75 

For me, let just men judge by what I show 
In acts expos' d how much I err or know ; 
And let not envy make all worse than nought, 
With her mere headstrong and quite brainless thought, 
Others, for doing nothing, giving all, 80 

And bounding all worth in her bursten gall. 

God and my dear Redeemer rescue me 
From men's immane and mad impiety, 
And by my life and soul (sole known to Them) 
Make me of palm, or yew, an anadem. 85 

And so my sole God, the Thrice -Sacred Trine, 
Bear all th' ascription of all me and mine. 



lico tibi. Poniine. Pater, et Dux rationis nostra. 
ut nostra? nobilitatis recordernur qua Tu mm ornasti ; et 
ut Tu nob .ut iis qui per sese nioventur : ut 

I corporis _ rutorumque affeetuum, re- 

purge inur. eosque superemus. at que regamus. 

:. pro instrunientis iis utaniur. Deinde. ut nobis ad- 
jumento eds, ad ac curat ani rationis correctionem, 

et eonjunctionem cum iis quivere sunt per lucem 
E: tertium, Salvatori supplex oro. ut ab oeulis aninioruni 
itou r um , caliginem proraoa _ : norinms bene 

qui Deus, aut mortalis, habendus. Amen. 



finis. 







THE GEORGICS OF HESIOD. 



THE 

GE O R G I CKS 

OF 

HESIOD, 

By George Chapman ; 

TRANSLATED ELABORATELY 

out of the Greek : 

Containing Do&rine of Hufbandrie, Moralitie, 
and Pietie ; with a perpetuall Calendar of Good 

and Bad Dales ; Not fuperftitious, but necejfarie 
(as farre as naturall Caufes compell) for all 
Men to obferue, and difference in fol- 
lowing their affaires. 

Nee caret vmbra Deo. 




LONDON, 

Printed by H. L. for Miles Partricb, and are to be folde 

at his Shop neare Saint Dunjlans Church in 

Fleet ftreet. 1 6 1 8 . 




TO THE MOST NOBLE COMBINES OF LEAENING 

T JK, 
SIR FRANCIS BACON. KNIGHT. 

LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND, I 

NCIENT wisdom being so worthily eter- 
nised by the now-renewed instance of it 
in your Lordship ; and this ancient 
Author, one of the most authentic for all 
wisdom crowned with justice and piety ; to wha: 
owe these poor streams their tribute, but to your Lord- 
ship's ocean ? The rather, since others of the like anti- 
quity, in my Translation of Homer, teach these their way. 
and add comfort to their courses, by havinor received 
right cheerful countenance and approbation from your 
Lordship's most grave and honoured predecessor. 

All judgments of this season (savouring anything the 
truth) preferring, to the wisdom of all other nations, 
these most wise, learned, and circularly -spoken G 
According to that of the poet — 

Graiis ingenium y GraiU dedit ore rwtmmd§ 
Mum loqui. 

And why may not this Roman elogy of the Graians ex- 



142 

tend in praiseful intention (by way of prophetic poesy) 
to Graies-Inne wits and orators? Or if the allusion 
(or petition of the principle) beg with too broad a licence 
in the general, yet serious truth, for the particular, may 
most worthily apply it to your Lordship's truly Greek 
inspiration, and absolutely Attic elocution. Whose all- 
acknowledged faculty hath banished flattery therein 
even from the Court ; much more from my country and 
more-than-upland simplicity. Nor were those Greeks 
so circular in their elegant utterance, but their inward 
judgments and learnings were as round and solid ; their 
solidity proved in their eternity ; and their eternity 
propagated by love of all virtue and integrity; — that 
love being the only parent and argument of all truth, in 
any wisdom or learning, without which all is sophisti- 
cate and adulterate, howsoever painted and splinted 
with degrees and languages. Your Lordship's " Ad- 
vancement of Learning" then, well showing your love 
to it, and in it, being true, to all true goodness, your 
learning, strengthening that love, must needs be solid 
and eternal. This lcttco^ <pco$,* therefore, expressed in 
tins Author, is used here as if prophesied by him then, 
now to take life in your Lordship, whose life is chief 
soul and essence to all knowledge and virtue: so few 
there are that live now combining honour and learning. 
This time resembling the terrible time whereof this 
poet prophesied; to which he desired he might not 
live, since not a Grace would then smile on any pious 
or worthy ; all greatness much more gracing impostors 

* Virvere (seu clare) sciens ; aut illustris Judex, velprocul 
videns Arbiter, quia eos acutos visu, seu gnaros esse oporteat 
rei de qua agitur. Chapman. 



143 

than men truly desertful. The worse depraving the 
better ; and that so frontlessly, that shame and justice 
should fly the earth for them. To shame which igno- 
rant barbarism now emboldened, let your Lordship's 
learned humanity prove nothing the less gracious to 
Virtue for the community of Vice's graces ; but shine 
much the more clear on her for those clouds that eclipse 
her ; no lustre being so sun-like as that which passeth 
above all clouds unseen, over fields, turrets, and temples, 
and breaks out, in free beams, on some humblest cottage. 
In whose like Jove himself hath been feasted ; and 
wherein your Lordship may find more honour than in 
the fretted roofs of the mighty. To which honour, 
oftentimes, nothing more conduceth than noble accept- 
ance of most humble presentments. On this nobility 
in your Lordship my prostrate humility relying, I rest 
ever submitted, in all simple and hearty vows, 

Your Honour's most truly, 

And freely devoted, 

George Chapman. 



OF HESIODUS. 






ESIODUS, sumaraed Asmeus, was one, 
as of the most ancient Greek poets, so 
one of the purest and pressest writers. 
He lived in the latter time of Homer, 
and was surnamed Ascrseus, of Ascra, a town in 
Helicon ; in which was built a temple sacred to the 
Muses : whose priest Hesiodus was consecrate ; whom 
Virgil, among so many writers of Georgics, only imi- 
tated, professing it in this : 

Ascrcevmque cano Romano. per oppida carmen ,*Egya 
kou "HpifM. Nor is there any doubt (saith Mel.) quin 
idem Virgilius initio Georgicorum heme inscriptionem 
capresserit hoc versu : i Quid faciat latas segetes, quo 
sidtre terrain' <£c. His authority was such amongst the 
ancients, that his verses were commonly learned as 
axioms or oracles, all teachiog good life and humanity ; 
which though never so profitable for men's now readings, 
yet had they rather (saith Isocrates) consume their 
times still in their own follies, than be any time con- 
versant in these precepts of wisdom ; of which (with 
Homer)he was first father, whose interpreters were all the 



145 

succeeding philosophers — not Aristotle himself ex- 
cepted: — who before Thales, Solon, Pittacus, Socrates. 
Plato, ike. writ of life, of manners, of God, of nature, of 
the stars, and general state of the universe, Xor are his 
writings the less worthy, that Poesy informed them, but 
of so much the more dignity and eternity. Xot Thales, 
nor Anaxagoras, (as Aristotle ingenuously confesseth,) 
having profited the world so much, with all their writ- 
ings, as Homer's one Ulysses or Xestor. And sooner 
shall all the atoms of Epicurus sustain division ; the 
fire of Heraclitus be utterly quenched ; the water that 
Thales extols so much be exhausted ; the spirit of 
Anaximenes vanish ; the discord of Empedocles be re- 
conciled, and all dissolved to nothing ; before by their 
most celebrated faculties they do the world so much 
profit, for all human instruction, as this one work of 
Hesiodua ! Here being no dwelling on any one subject; 
but of all human affairs instructively concluded. 





TO MY WORTHY FRIEXD MR. GEORGE 
CHAPMAN, AXD HIS TRANS- 
LATED IIESIOD. 

HAPMAM", we find, by thy past-prized 
fraught. 
What wealth thou dost upon this land 

confer. 

Tli' old Grecian prophets hither that hast brought. 

Of their full words the true interpreter ; 

And by thy travell strongly hast exprest s 

The large dimensions of the English tongue, 

Delivering them so well,, the first and best 

That to the world in numbers ever sung. 

Thou hast unlock'd the treasury wherein 

All art and knowledge have so long been hidden ; 

Which, till the graceful Muses did begin 

Here to inhabit, was to us forbidden. 

In blest Elysium. | in a place most fit) 
Under that tree due to the Delphian God, 
Mu&sus and that Iliad Singes sit, is 

And near to them that noble Hesiod, 
Smoothing their rugged foreheads ; and do smile, 
After so many hundred years, to see 
Their Poems read in this far western isle, 



147 

Translated from their ancient Greek by thee ; 20 

Each his good Genins whispering in his ear, 

That with so racky and auspicious fate 

Did still attend them whilst they living were, 

And gave their verses such a lasting date. 

Where, slightly passing by the Thespian spring, 25 
Many long after did but only sup ; 
Xature, then fruitful, forth these men did bring, 
To fetch deep roses fron lenteous cup. 

In thy free labours, friend, then rest content, 
Fear not Detraction, neither fawn on Ran 

nsure all her force hath spent, 
Knowledge can crown herself with her own bays. 
Their lines that have so many lives outworn, 
Clearly expounded, shall >rn. 

MlC HAEL DBAYT 





TO MY WORTHY AND HONOURED FRIEND, 

MR. GEORGE CHAPMAN, 

ON HIS TRANSLATION OE HESIOD'S WORKS 
AND DAYS. 

HOSE work could this be, Chapman, to 
refine 
Old Hesiod's ore, and give it us, but thine, 
Who had'st before wr ought in rich 
Homer's mine? 

What treasure hast thou brought us ! and what store 
Still, still, dost thou arrive with at our shore, 5 

To make thy honour and our wealth the more ! 

If all the vulgar tongues that speak this day 
Were ask'd of thy discoveries, they must say, 
To the Greek coast thine only knew the way. 

Such passage hast thou found, such returns made, 10 
As, now of all men, it is called thy trade ; 
And who make thither else rob, or invade ! 

Ben Jonson. 



THE GEORGICS OF HESIOD. 

BY GEORGE CHAP.AIAX. 




THE FIRST BOOK.* 

USES ! that, out of your Pierian state. 
All worth in sacred numbers celebrate. 
) Use b here yourfaculties so much renown'd. 
To sins- your Sire; c and hini in hymns d 
resound 
By whom all humans, that to death are bound, 5 

Are bound together ; both the great in fame, e 
And men whose poor fates fit them with no name/ 
Xoble, g and base : h great Jove's will orders all ; 
For he with ease extols, with ease lets fall ; 

a To approve my difference from the vulgar and verbal ex- 
p^sition. and other amplifications fit and necessary for the 
true rendering and illustration of my author, I am enforced 
tu annex some words of the original to my other annotations. 

3 b A£?T£, hue agite. 

4 C J 

4 ^'Yfiveiovaai. humnis deeantantes. 
* e &arbe. de quo magna fama est. 
'_ t ' Aoaroe, non dicendus. incelebris. 

- P//70C, honoratus. nobil'n. 
8 h "Aooi]7oe* ignobitis, ad nullam functionem seu dignitatem 
assumptus. 



150 FIRST BOOK OF THE 

Eas'ly diminisheth the most in grace, 10 

And lifts the most obscure to loftiest place ; 

Eas'ly sets straight 1 the quite shrunk up together , k 

And makes the most elated 1 beauty wither ; 

And this is Jove, that breaks his voice so high 

In horrid sounds, and dwells above the sky. 15 

Hear, then, O Jove, that dost both see and hear, 
And, for thy justice' sake, be orderer 
To these just precepts,™ that in prophecy 11 
I use, to teach my brother piety. 

]Sot one Contention on the earth there reigns 20 

To raise men's fortunes and peculiar gains, 
But two. The one the knowing man approves ; 
The other hate should force from human loves, 
Since it derides our reasonable kind, 
In two p parts parting man's united mind ; 25 

And is so harmful, for pernicious War 
It feeds, and bites at every Civil Jar ; 
Which no man q loves, but strong Necessity 
Doth this Contention, as his plague, imply 
By Heaven's hid counsels. Th' other Strife black Night 
Begat before ; which Jove, that in the light 31 

12 i'lOvg, rectus, erectus, non tortuosus. Metaph. 

12 k 2fco\ioc, tortuosus, incurvus. 

13 I'Ayyjvopa icdptpei, superbum, seu jlorentem, facit ut deflo- 
rescat. 

is m £' lK y o' Wvve. OsfjLHTraQjjudicia vel vera pracepta de moribus, 
seu pietate. 

18 n hlvO'so^ai, vaticinor. 

23 o'n^pupjyj-frc^ reprehensione, et derisione, digmis. 

25 P*Aj/^a, duas paries. 

28 ^Ovtiq. He says no man loves this war per se, but per ac- 
cident; because men cannot discern from things truly worthy 
of their loves those that falsely pretend worth and retain none ; 
which he ascribes to some secret counsel of Jove, that, for plague 
to their impieties, strikes blind their understandings. 



GEORGICS OF HESIOD. 151 

Of all the stars dwells, and, though thron'd aloft, 

Of each man weighs yet both the work and thought, 

Put in the roots of earth ; from whose womb grow 

Men's needful means to pay the debt they owe 35 

To life and living. And this Strife is far 

More fit for men, and much the sprightlier ; 

For he in whose hands 1 " lives no love of art, 

Nor virtuous industry, yet plucks up heart, 

And falls to work for living. Any one, 40 

Never so stupid and so base a drone, 

Seeing a rich man haste to sow, and plant, 

And guide his house well, feels with shame his want, 

And labours like him. And this Strife is good. 

When Strife for riches warms and fires the blood, 45 

The neighbour doth the neighbour emulate/ 

The potter doth the potter's profit hate, 

The smith the smith with spleen inveterate, 1 

Beggar maligns the beggar for good done, 

And the musician the musician. 50 

This Strife, O Perses, see remember'd still ; 
But fly Contention that insults on th' ill 11 
Of other men, and from thy work cloth draw 
To be a well-seen man in works of law. 
Nor to those courts afford affected ear ; 55 

For he that hath not, for the entire year, 

38 r 'A7rd\afjLVOQ % cujus manibus nulla ars, nulla sedulitas, inest. 

46 s Z?/\oT. He shows artizans' emulations for riches, and ap- 
proves that kind of contention. Notwithstanding Plato in 
Lysias, Aristotle in the 5. of his Pol. and 2. of his Rhetor, and 
Galen, refer this strife to the first harmful discord, yet Plu- 
tarch takes our author's part, and ascribes it to the virtuous 
contention. 

48 l Kor£w, a'stuo ird quam din pressi in pectore. 

52 n "Epig KctKoxapTOQ, alieiiis insultans calamitatibus content io ; 
which he calls their going to law. 



152 FIRST BOOK OF THE 

Enough laid up beforehand, little need 

Hath to take care those factious courts to feed 

With what earth bears, and Ceres doth bestow. 

With which when thou art satiate, nor dost know eo 

What to do with it, then to these wars go 

For others' goods ; but see no more spent so 

Of thine hereafter. Let ourselves decide, 

With dooms direct, all differences implied 

In our affairs ; and, what is ratified 65 

By Jove's will to be ours, account our own ; 

For that thrives ever best. Our discord, grown 

For what did from our father's bounty fall, 

We ended lately, and shared freely all ; 69 

When thou much more than thine hadst ravish'd home, 

With which thou mad'st proud, x and didst overcome, 

With partial affection to thy cause, 

Those gift- devouring kings that sway our laws, 

Who would have still retain'd us in their powers, 

And given by their dooms what was freely Qurs. 75 

O fools, that all things into judgment call, 
Yet know not how much y half is more than all ! 
Nor how the mean life is the firmest still, 
Nor of the mallow and the daffodill 



71 x Meya Kvdaivwv, valde gloriosos reddens. BcKTikrjag dw- 
pocj)dyovg, reges donivoros. 

77 yUXsov 7]fjiL(Tv 7ravTbg,dimidiumplustoto. He commends the 
mean, and reproves those kings or judges that are too indul- 
gent to their covetous and glorious appetites, from the frugal 
and competent life declining ad 7r\eovfZiav, i.e. ad plus habendi 
aviditaiem inecchaustam. Showing how ignorant they are 5 that 
the virtue of justice and mediocrity is to be preferred to in- 
justice and insatiate avarice. By 1]}jli<jv he understands medium 
inter Lucrum et damnum, which mean is more profitable and 
notable than 7ravrog, i. e. toto quo el sua pars reiinetur, et alterius 
ad se pertrahitur. 



GEORGICS OF HESIOB. 153 

How great a good the little meals contain. so 

But God hath hid from men the healthful mean ; 
For otherwise a man might heap, and play, 
Enough to serve the whole year in a day, 
And straight his draught-tree hang up in the smoke, 
Xor more his labouring mules nor oxen yoke. 35 

But Jove man's knowledge of his best bereav'd, 
Conceiving anger, since he was deceived 
By that same wisdom- wresting 2 Japhet's son; 
For which all ill all earth did overrun. 
For Jove close keeping in a hollow cave 90 

His holy fire, to serve the use of man, 
Prometheus stole it, by his human sleight, 
From him that hath of all heaven's wit the height ; 
For which He angry, thus to him began 
The Cloud-assembler : u Thou most crafty man, 95 
That joy'st to steal my fire, deceiving me, 
Shalt feel that joy the greater grief to thee, 
And therein plague thy universal race ; 
To whom I'll give a pleasing ill, in place 
Of that good fire, and all shall be so vain 100 

To place their pleasure in embracing pain." 

Thus spake and laugh' d of Grods and Men the Sire, 

And straight enjoin'd the famous God of Fire 

88 z 'AyKv\oiii]Tr]g, he calls Prometheus, i. e. qui obliqua agitut 
consilia ; who wrests that wisdom, which God hath given him 
to use to his glory, to his own ends : which is cause to all the 
miseries men suffer, and of all their impious actions that de- 
serve them. Jove's Fire signifies Truth, which Prometheus 
stealing, figures learned men's over-subtle abuse of divine 
knowledge, wresting it in false expositions to their own objects, 
thereby to inspire and puff up their own profane earth, in- 
tending their corporeal parts, and the irreligious delights of 
them. But, for the mythology of this, read my Lord Chan- 
cellor's book, De Sapientid Veterum, cap. 26, being infinitely 
better. 



154 FIRST BOOK OF THE 

To mingle, instantly, with water earth ; 

The voice and vigour of a human birth a 105 

Imposing in it, and so fair a face 

As match' d th' Immortal Goddesses in grace, 

Her form presenting a most lovely maid. 

Then on Minerva his command he laid 

To make her work, and wield the witty loom. 110 

And, for her beauty, such as might become 

The golden Yenus, he commanded her 

Upon her brows and countenance to confer 

Her own bewitchings ; stuffing all her breast 

With wild b desires incapable of rest, 115 

And cares that feed to all satiety 

All human lineaments. The crafty Spy 

And Messenger of Godheads, Mercury, 

He charg'd t' inform her with a dogged c mind, 

And thievish manners. All as he design'd 120 

Was put in act. A creature straight had frame 

Like to a virgin, mild and full of shame ; 

Which Jove's suggestion made the Both-foot-lame 

Form so deceitfully, and all of earth 

To forge the living matter of her birth. 125 

Grey-eyed Minerva put her girdle on, 

And show'd how loose parts, well composed, shone. 

The deified Graces, and the Dame d that sets 

Sweet words in chief form, golden carquenets 

Embrac'd her neck withal. The fair-hair'd Hours 130 

Jos a j v e ' s creation of a woman. 

1)5 b Kai 7r69ov. An unwearied and wanton desire to exceed 
others, or an insatiate longing to be loved of all. Tvioicopog, 
membra ad satietatem usque depascens. MeXediovag, cares, or 
meditations of voluptuous satisfactions. 

1,9 c Kvve6v re loov, caninam mentem, vel impudentem, icai 
l7TiK\o7rov ri9og.furac.es mores. 

128 d llet9oj } or Suada, Goddess of persuasion, or eloquence. 



GEOEGICS OF HESIOD. 155 

Her gracious temples crown' d with fresh spring-flowers. 

But of all these, employ' d in several place, 

Pallas gave order 6 the impulsive grace. 

Her boBOm Hermes, the great God of spies. 

With subtle fashions filTd, fair words, and lies ; 135 

Jove prompting still. But all the voice f she us'd 

The vocal herald of the Gods infus'd, 

And calTd her name Pandora, since on her 

The Gods did all their several gifts confer ; 

Who made her such, in every moving strain, 

To he the bane of curious-minded men. 

Her harmful and inevitable frame 
At all parts perfect, Jove dismiss'd the Dame 
To Epiinetheus, in his herald's guide, 
With all the Gods' plagues in a box beside. us 

Nor Epimetheus kept one word in store 
Of what Prometheus had advised before, 
"Which was : That Jove should fasten on his hand 
Xo gift at all, but he his wile withstand, 
And back return it, lest with instant ill 150 

To mortal men he all the world did till. 
But he first took the gift, and after griev'd. g 

133 e 'E(f)j]pf.io(TS, impetu inspirabat, gave special force to all her 
attractions : which he says Pallas did, to show that to all beauty 
wisdom and discreet behaviour give the chief excitement. 

136 f 3>wi'?)y. Her voice the vecal or high-spoken herald of 
the gods imposed ; all fair women affecting to be furthest heard, 
as well as most seen. 

152 B '£ vor](T8. When he had received and tried the ill, he knew 
it was ill. and grieved : but then was so infected with affection 
to it, that he could not reform nor refine it. For man's cor- 
poreal part, which is figured in Epimetheus, signifying the 
inconsiderate and headlong force of affection, nut obeying his 
reasonable part or soul, nor using foresight fit for the preven- 
tion of ill, which is figured in Prometheus, he is deceived 
with a false shadow of pleasure ; for the substantial and true 



FIE ST BOOK OF THE 

For first the families of mortals 1: 

Without and free from ill : harsh labour then, 

N -' ; as, hasting timeless age on men, 155 

ir hard and wretehed tasks impos'd on them 
For manv Years : but now a violent stream 
Of all afflictions in an instant came, 
And quench" d life's light that shin'd before in flame. 

when the woman h the unwieldy lid iGO 

Had once discover d, all the miseries hid 
In that curs'd cabinet dispers'd and flew 
About the world ; joys pined, and sorrows grew. 
Hope only rested in the box's brim. 
And took not wing from thence. Jove prompted him 
That owd the cabinet to clap it close 166 

Before she parted ; but unnumber'd woes 
Brides encount'red men in all their way- ; 
Full were all shores of them, and full all seas. 

delight, fit to be embraced, which, found by Event (the school- 
master of fools), he repents too late. And, therefore, Horace 
truly, tweet empta dolare toluptas. 

199 h 'AAXd yvvriy of this came the proverb, ywaixuw ok&poc. 
the plague of women ; and by the woman is understood Appe- 
tite, or Effeminate Affection, and customary or fashionable in- 
dulgence to the blood, not only in womanish affections, hot in 
the general fashions of men's judgments and actions, both 
(ijpayvyuci). id est, populariter, or gratia et authoritatc qua quis 
to let apudpopulum; and ^^xayvyucif, id est, vi ducendi etjiectendi 
animum. intending illusively, by this same docta ignorant ia. of 
which many learned leaders of the mind are guilty ; and <rvp- 
fer&dife, id est, the common source or sink of the vulgar, pre- 
vailing past the nobility and piety of humanity and religion, 
iiich all sincere discipline is dissolved or corrupted, and 
so that discipline taken away (tanquam opereulo Pandora), both 
the human body's and mind's dissolution, instantly (as out of 
the cave of JEolos) let the winds or forces of corruption violently 
break, qua data porta, ruunt, et terras turbine perfiamt. All 
which notwithstanding, no course or custom is so desperate in 
infection, bat some hope is left to escape their punishment in 
man, according to Ovid, rhere spe vidi, qui murriturus erat. 



GEORGICS OF HESIOD. 157 

Diseases, day and night, with natural wings 170 

And silent entries stole on men their stings ; 

The great in counsels, Jove, their voices reft, 

That not the truest might avoid their theft, 

Nor any 'scape the ill, in any kind, 

Besolv'd at first in his almighty mind. 175 

And, wert thou willing, I would add to this 
A second cause of men's calamities, 
Sing all before, and since, nor will be long, 
But short, and knowing ; and t' observe my song, 
Be thy conceit and mind's retention strong. iso 

When first both Gods and Men had one time's birth. 
The Gods of diverse-languag'd men on Earth 
A Golden 1 world produc'd, that did sustain 
Old Saturn's rule when he in heaven did reign ; 
And then liv'd men, like Gods, k in pleasure here, 185 
Indued with minds secure ; from toils, griefs, clear ; 
Nor noisome age made any crooked ; there 
Their feet went ever naked as their hands ; 
Their cates were blessed, serving their commands, 
With ceaseless plenties ; all days sacred made 190 

To feasts, that surfeits never could invade. 
Thus liv'd they long, and died as seis'd with sleep ; 
All good things serv'd them ; fruits did ever keep 
Their free fields crown'd, that all abundance bore ; 

183 l Xpu(jeov. Not only this description of Ages (as the 
critics observe) is imitated by all the Latin poets, but all the 
rest of this author 5 and chiefly by Virgil himself. His sen- 
tence and invention made so common, that their community 
will darken the rarity of them in their original. And this was 
called the Golden Age (according to Plato) for the virtuous 
excellency of men's natural dispositions and manners. 

185 k "Q(Tra Qeoi, sed ut dii vivebant homines. The poet, says 
Melancthon, could not but have some light of our parents' 
lives in Paradise. 



158 FIRST BOOK OF THE 

All which all equal shared, and none wish'd more. 195 

And, when the Earth had hid them, Jove's will was, 

The good should into heavenly natures pass ; 

Yet still held' state on earth, and guardians 1 were 

Of all hest mortals still surviving there, 

Observed works just and unjust, clad in air, 200 

And, gliding undiscover'd everywhere, 

Gave riches where they pleased ; and so were reft 

Nothing of all the royal rule they left. 

The Second Age, that next succeeded this, 
Was far the worse ; which heaven-hous'd Deities 205 
Of Silver fashion'd ; not like that of Gold 
In disposition, nor so wisely soul'd. 
For children then liv'd in their mothers' cares 
(All that time growing still) a hundred years ; 
And were such great fools at that age, that they 210 
Could not themselves dispose a family. 
And when they youths grew, having reach' d the date 
That rear'd their forces up to man's estate, 
They liv'd small space, and spent it all in pain, 

198 l $v\aKeg avOpwTTwv, custodes hominum ; from hence the 
opinion springeth that every man hath his good angel ; which 
sort of spirits, however discredited now to attend and direct 
men, Plutarch, in his Commentaries De Oraculovum Defectu, 
defends to retain assured being, in this sort; as if a man 
should take away the interjected air betwixt the earth and 
the moon, that man must likewise dissolve all the coherence 
and actual unity of the universe, leaving vacuum in medio, and 
necessar}' bond of it all ; so they that admit no Genii leave be- 
twixt God and men no reasonable mean for commerce, the 
interpretative and administering faculty, as Plato calls it, be- 
twixt them utterly destroying, and withdrawing consequently 
all their reciprocal and necessary uses ; as the witches of 
Thessaly are said to pluck the moon out of her sphere. But 
these men being good, turned only good Genii ; the next Age, 
men, being bad, turned in their next being bad Genii, of which 
after was held a man's good and bad Genius. 



GEORGICS OF HESIOD. 159 

Caused by their follies ; not of power t' abstain 215 

From doing one another injury. 

Nor would they worship any Deity, 

Nor on the holy altars of the Blest 

Any appropriate sacrifice addrest, 

As fits the fashion of all human birth. 220 

For which Jove, angry, hid them straight in earth, 

Since to the blessed Deities of heaven 

They gave not those respects they should have given. 

But when the Earth had hid these like the rest, 

They then were call'd the subterrestrial blest, m 225 

And in bliss second, having honours then 

Fit for the infernal spirits of powerful men. 

Then form'd our Father Jove a Third Descent, 
Whose Age was Brazen ; clearly different 
From that of Silver. All the mortals there 230 

Of wild ash fashion'd, stubborn and austere ; 
"Whose minds the harmful facts of Mars affected, 
And petulant injury. All meats rejected 
Of natural fruits and herbs. And these were they 
That first began that table cruelty 235 

Of slaught'ring beasts ; and therefore grew they fierce, 
And not to be endur'd in their commerce. 
Their ruthless minds in adamant were cut, 

225 m 'YttoxGowoi fnaicapeg, subterranei beati mortales vocantur. 
Out of their long lives and little knowledges, in neglect of re- 
ligion, subject to painful and bitter death ; where the former 
good men sweetly slept him out. But for the powers of their 
bodies, being fashioned of the world's yet fresh and vigorous 
matter, their spirits that informed their bodies are supposed 
secondly powerful ; and that is intended in their recourse to 
earthly men, such as themselves were, furthering their affec- 
tions and ambitions to ill, for which they had honour of those 
men, and of them were accounted blest, as the former good 
Genii were so, indeed, for exciting men to goodness. 



160 FIRST BOOK OF THE 

Their strengths were dismal, and their shoulders put 

Inaccessible hands out over all ; 240 

Their brawny limbs arm'd with a brazen wall. 

Their houses all were brazen, all of brass 

Their working instruments, for black iron was 

As jet unknown. And these (their own lives ending, 

The vast and cold-sad house of hell descending) 245 

No grace had in their ends ; n but though they were 

Xever so powerful, and enforcing fear, 

Black death reduc'd their greatness in their spight 

T' a little room, and stopped their cheerful light. 

"When these left life, a Fourth Kind Jove gave birth 
Upon the manj-a-creature-nourishing earth ; 251 

More just, and better than this race before — 
Divine heroes, that the surnames bore 
Of semigods ; p yet these impetuous fight 
And bloody war bereft of life and light. 255 

Some, in Cadm£ean earth, contentious 

246 n^ ( ^ VV j JLV0L These he intends were such rude and 
powerful men, as not only refused, like the second sort, to 
do honour to the Deities, but directly rebelled against them, 
and affected here in earth celestial empery ; for which the Ce- 
lestials let them see that they need none but themselves to 
take down their affectations 5 and for their so huge conceit of 
themselves had never any least honour of others, which many 
great men of this Iron Age need not be ignorant, therefore, is 
the event of such great ones ; and, howsoever they laugh in 
their sleeves at any other being than this, they may take notice 
by their wisers, that, even according to reason, both, there are 
other beings, and differences of those beings, both in honours 
and miseries. 

249 °Ei/\iw, in arctum cogo, seu in angustum redigo. 

254 P'HfiiOeoiisemidei. Intending Hercules, Jason, and others 
of those Argonauts whose ship was vrjvg 'Apyw izaGiiikXovaa, 
navis omnibus cura, because it held the care of all men in those 
that were in her 5 intending of all the virtuous men that were 
then of name, who were called semigods for their godlike 
virtues. 



GEOBGICS OF HE SI OB. 161 

To prise the infinite wealth of QEdipus, 

Before seven-ported p Thebes; some shipp'd upon 

The ruthless waves, and led to Ilion, 

For fair-hair'd Helen's love ; where, likewise, thej 230 

In bounds of death confin'd the beams -of day. 

To these yet Jove gave second life, and seat 
At ends of all the earth ; in a retreat 
From human feet, where souls secure they bear, 
Amids the Blessed Islands, q situate near 265 

The gulfy-whirl-pit-eating ocean flood, 
Happy heroes living ; for whose food 
The plenty-bearing Tellus, thrice a year, 
Delicious fruits and fragrant herbs doth bear. 

O that I might not live now, to partake 270 

The Age that must the Fifth succession make, 
But either die before, or else were born 
When all that Age is into ashes worn ! 
For that which next springs, in supply of this, 
"Will all of Iron 1 " produce his families ; 275 

Whose bloods shall be so banefully corrupt 
They shall not let them sleep, but interrupt 
With toils and miseries all their rests and fares, 
The Gods such grave and soul- dissecting cares 
Shall steep their bosoms in. And yet some good 2so 

258 P < E7rra7rt'X<>j. He calls this seven-ported Thebes, to dis- 
tinguish it from that of Egypt, that had 100 ports, besides 
that Hyppoplace in Cilicia. 

265 q'Ey fiaKapojv viiaotai, in beatorum insulis ; of which For- 
tunate Islands, vide Horn. Odyss. 8. 

275 r Tsvog karl (Tidrfpeov, cnj us genus est ferreum. This Fifth 
Age he only prophesied of, almost three thousand years since ; 
which falling out in this age especially true shows how divine 
a truth inspired him 5 and whether it be lawful or not, with 
Plato and all the formerly learned, to give these worthiest 
poets the commendation of divine. 



162 FIRST BOOK OF THE 

Will God mix with their bad ; for when the blood 

Faints in their nourishment, and leaves their hair 

A little gray, Jove's hand will stop the air 

'Twixt them and life, and take them straight away. 

'Twixt men and women shall be such foul play 285 

In their begetting pleasures, and their race 

Spring from such false seed, that the son's stol'n face 

Shall nought be like the sire's, the sire no more 

Seen in his issue. No friend, as before, 

Shall like his friend be ; nor no brother rest 290 

Kind like his brother ; no guest like a guest 

Of former times ; no child use like a child 

His aged parents, but with manners wild 

Revile and shame them ; their impiety 

Shall never fear that God's all-seeing eye 295 

Is fixt upon them, but shall quite despise 

Repayment of their education's price, 

s Bear their law in their hands, and when they get 

Their father's free-given goods, account them debt. 

City shall city ransack ; not a grace 300 

To any pious man shall show her face, 

Nor to a just or good man. All, much more, 

Shall grace a beastly and injurious bore. 

No right shall seize on any hand of theirs, 

Nor any shame make blush their black affairs. 305 

The worse shall worse the better with bad words, 

And swear him out of all his right affords. 

Ill-lung'd,* ill-liver'd, ill-complexion'd Spight 

298 8 XeipoSUaiy quibus jus est in manibus ; all this Ovid 
translates : Nee hospes ab hospite tutus, non socer a genero ; fratrum 
quoque gratia vara est. 

303 [tf ore — boor.] 

308 l AvcnckXadoQ, male seu graviter sonans; kclkoxo-PTOq, malis 



GEOBGICS OF HESIOD. 163 

Shall consort all the miserable plight 

Of men then living. Justice then, and Shame, 310 

Clad in pure white (as if they never came 

In touch of those societies) shall fly 

Up to the Gods' immortal family, 

From broad-way'd earth ; and leave grave griefs to men, 

That (desp'rate of amends) must hear all then. 315 

But now to kings a fable I'll obtrude, 
Though clear they savor all it can include : 
The hawk u once having trust up in his seres 
The sweet-tun'd nightingale, and to the spheres 
His prey transferring, with his talons she 320 

Pinch'd too extremely, and incessantly 
Crying for anguish, this imperious speech 
He gave the poor bird : "Why complain' st thou wretch? 
One holds thee now that is thy mightier far ; 
Go as he guides, though ne'er so singular 325 

Thou art a singer ; it lies now in me 
To make thee sup me, or to set thee free. 
Fool that thou art, whoever will contend 
With one whose faculties his own transcend 
Both fails of conquest, and is likewise sure 330 

Besides his wrong he shall bad words endure." 

Thus spake the swift and broad-wing'd bird of prey. 
But hear x thou justice, and hate injury. 

gaudens, vel quo mali gaudent et delectantur, vel alienis insultans 
calamitatibus ; GTvyepwirriQ) inviso aspectu, et torvis oculis cer- 
nens; all epithets of £?jj\oc. 

318 u"jp^^ accipiter. The manners of the mighty towards 
the mean are figured in this fiction by the nightingale under- 
standing learned and virtuous men. The following verse, dtypiov, 
imprudens, <Sfc. follows the most Sacred Letter, non esse reluctan- 
dum potentioribus. 

333 xT Q Tlkptjr}. He speaks to his brother and returns to his 
first proposition ; of the fit contention to which he persuaded 



164 FIRST BOOK OF THE 

Wrong touches near a miserable man ; 

For (though most patient) yet he hardly can 335 

Forbear just words, and feel injurious deeds. 

Unjust loads vex ; he hardly bears that bleeds. 

And yet hath Wrong to Eight a better way, 

For in the end will Justice win the day. 

Till which who bears sees then amends arise ; 340 

The fool y first suffers, and is after wise. 

But crooked 2 Justice jointly hooks with it 

Injurious Perjury ; and that unfit 

Outrage brib'd judges use, that makes them draw 

The way their gifts go, ever cuts out law 845 

By crooked measures. Equal Justice then, 

All clad in air, th' ill minds of bribed men 

Comes after mourning, mourns the city's ill, 

Which, where she is expelled, she brings in still. 

But those that with impartial dooms extend 350 

As well to strangers as their household friend 

The law's pure truth, and will in no point stray 

From forth the straight tract of the equal way, 

With such the city all things noble nourish, 

him before 5 and though shame and injustice are fled in others, 
yet he wisheth him to love and embrace them. The elegant 
description immediately before being truly philosophical, and 
is handled at large by Plato in Protagoras. 

341 y IIa9(hv vrj7TLog, passns vero stultus sapit, which was since 
usurped proverbially ; signifying that wisdom to be folly that 
we learn but of our own first suffered afflictions, which yet I 
think far exceeds any wisdom that was never taught nor con- 
firmed by first feeling infortunes and calamities. 

342 z 2*coXi5J7<xi diKyaiv properly signifies curvis vet tortuosis 
judiciia, which, he says, ravish together with them perjury. 

Alluding to crooked things, or things wrapt together like 
brambles, that catch and keep with them whatsoever touches 
them. Our proverb, to overtake with a crooked measure, not 
ridiculously applied to this grave metaphor; <yico\iai diicai, 
not signifying in this place what our critics teach, vid. lites 
iniquas, but judicia iniqua seu iortuosa. 



GEORGICS OF HESIOD. 165 

With such the people in their profits flourish ; 355 

Sweet Peace along the land goes, nor to them 

All- seeing Jove will destinate th' extreme 

Of baneful war. Xo hunger ever comes, 

Xo ill, where judge? use impartial dooms. 

But o-oods well o-ot maintain still neighbour feasts : 360 

The fields flow there with lawful interests ; 

On hills the high oak acorns bears ; in dales 

Th' industrious bee her honey sweet exhales, 

And full-fell'd sheep are shorn with festivals : 

There women bring forth children like their sire, 365 

And all, in all kinds, find their own entire ; 

Nor ever plow they up the barren seas. 

Their own fat fields yield store enough to please. 

But whom rude Injury delights, and acts 

That misery and tyranny contracts, 370 

Sharp-sighted Jove for such predestines pain 5 

And oftentimes a the whole land doth sustain, 

For one man's wickedness, that thriving in 

In equal dooms, still makes him sentence him. 

For where such men bear privileged office still, 375 

372 ^JJoWuKi. Oftentimes for one ill man a whole city suf- 
fers: which sentence, in near the same words, is used in Eccle- 
siastes. Save universa civitas mali viri panam luit. And as before 
he recounts the blessings that accompany good kings or judges, 
so here he remembers the plagues that pursue the bad, enforciDg 
in both, as I may say. the ebbing or flowing of every common- 
wealth by them. For law being soul to every such politic 
body, and judges, as if essence to that soul, in giving it form 
and being, according to their sentence and expositions of it, 
the body politic of force must fare well or ill, as it is governed 
well or ill ; no otherwise than as the body of a man suffers 
good or ill by his soul's good or bad information and discipline. 
These threats used here, saith Melancthon, as in divers other 
places of this divine poet, he questionless gathered out of the 
doctrine of Moses and the Prophets, with whom the like com- 
minations are everywhere frequent. 



166 FIRST BOOK OF THE 

There Jove pours down whole deluges of ill ; 

Famine and Pestilence together go ; 

The people perish ; women barren grow ; 

Whole houses vanish there sometimes in peace ; 

And sometimes armies, rais'd to shield th ? increase 380 

The Gods late gave them, even those Gods destroy, 

Their rampires ruin, and let Rapine joy 

The goods Injustice gather' d ; or, elsewhere, 

Jove sinks their ships, and leaves their ventures there. 

Weigh, then, b yourselves this justice, O ye kings ; 385 

For howsoever oft unequal things 

Obtain their pass, they pass not so the eyes 

Of all the all- discerning Deities ; 

For close and conversant their virtues be 

With men ; and, how they grate each other, see, 390 

With wrested judgments ; yielding no cares due 

To those sure wreaks with which the Gods pursue 

Unequal judges. Though on earth there are 

Innumerable Gods that minister 

Beneath great Jove, that keep men, clad in air, 395 

Corrupt dooms noting, and each false affair, 

And, gliding through the earth, are everywhere. 

Justice is seed to Jove, in all fame dear, 

And reverend to the Gods inhabiting Heaven, 

And still a Virgin ; whom when men ill given 400 

Hurt, and abhorring from the right shall wrong, 

She, for redress, to Jove her sire complains 

385 bKai avrol. He would have judges enter into considera- 
tion themselves of the dangers in injustice, which presently 
after he reduces into three arguments. The first, ol avrtfi, sihi 
ipsi, which sentence to admiration agrees to that of the Scrip- 
ture, Incidit infoveam quam fecit ; the second for fear of further 
punishment from God ; the third he makes out of the natural 
indignity and absurdity of the thing. 



GEOBGICS OF HESIOD. 167 

Of the unjust mind every man sustains, 

And prays the people may repay the pains 

Their kings have forfeited in their offences, 405 

Depraving justice, and the genuine senses 

Of laws corrupted in their sentences. 

Observing this, ye gift- devouring kings, 

Correct your sentences ; and to their springs 

Eemember ever to reduce those streams 410 

Whose crooked courses every man condemns. 

Whoever forgeth for another ill, 

With it himself is overtaken still. 

In ill men run on that they most abhor ; 

111 counsel worst is to the councellor. 415 

For Jove's eye all things seeing, and knowing all, 

Even these things, if he will, of force must fall 

Within his sight and knowledge ; nor to him 

Can these brib'd dooms in cities shine so dim 

But he discerns them, and will pay them pain ; 420 

Else would not I live justly amongst men, 

Nor to my justice frame my childeren, 

If to be just is ever to be ill, 

And that the unjust finds most justice still, 

And Jove gave each man in the end his will. 42^ 

But he that loves the lightning (I conceive) 

To these things thus will no conclusion give. 

However, Perses, c put these in thy heart, 

428 c T Q Us per}. He persuades his brother to the love of justice 
by argument taken from the true nature of man, that, by 
virtue of his divine soul, naturally loves it ; because God in- 
fused into that divine beam of his being immortal a love to 
that that preserved immortality without that immortal destruc- 
tion affected in injustice. Fishes, beasts, and fowls, endued 
naturally with no such love to justice, but allowed by God to 
do like themselves and devour one another ; which that men 
should do as well as they, is most inhuman and full of confu- 



168 FIRST BOOK OF THE 

And to the equity of things convert 

Thy mind's whole forces, all thought striking dead 430 

To that foul Rapine that hath now such head. 

For in our manhoods Jove hath justice clos'd, 

And as a law upon our souls impos'd. 

Fish, fowl, and savage beasts, (whose law is pow'r) 

Jove lets each other mutually devour, 435 

Because they lack the equity he gives 

To govern men, as far best for their lives ; 

And therefore men should follow it with strives. 

For he that knows the justice of a cause, 

And will in public ministry of laws 440 

Give sentence to his knowledge, be he sure 

God will enrich him. But who dares abjure 

His conscious knowledge, and belie the law, 

Past cure will that wound in his conscience draw, 

And for his radiance now his race shall be 445 

The deeper plung'd in all obscurity. 

The just man's state shall in his seed exceed, 

And, after him, breed honours as they breed. 

But why men's ills prevail so much with them, 
I, that the good know, will uncloud the beam 450 

In whose light lies the reason. With much ease 
To Vice, and her love, men may make access, 
Such crews in rout herd to her, and her court 
So passing near lies, their way sweet and short ; 
But before Virtue d do the Gods rain sweat, 455 

sion, as well in their deformed mixture as in the ruin that in- 
separably follows it. But his confidence here, that whosoever 
will do justice freely, and without respect of riches, God will 
enrich him, and that the worse-inclined will feel it in the hell 
of his conscience, the other's seed prospering beyond himself, 
is truly religious and right Christian. 
455 d T jj£ §* &p eT jjg } ante virtutem. His argument to persuade 



QEOBQICS OF HESIOD. 169 

Through which, with toil and half- dissolved feet, 

You must wade to her ; her path long and steep, 

And at your entry 'tis so sharp and deep, 

But scaling once her height, the joy is more 

Than all the pain she put you to before. 460 

The pain at first, then, both to love and know 

Justice and Virtue, and those few that go 

Their rugged way, is cause 'tis follow'd lest. 

e Of all men, therefore, he is always best 

That, not depending on the mightiest, 465 

Nor on the most, hath of himself descried 

All things becoming ; and goes fortified 

In his own knowledge so far as t' intend 

to Virtue here is taken both from her own natural fate and 
the divine disposition of God ; for as she hath a body, being 
supposed the virtue of man, and through the worthily exercised 
and instructed organs of that body her soul receives her exci- 
tation to all her expressible knowledge (for dati sunt sensus ad 
eicitandum intellectum), so to the love and habit of knowledge 
and Virtue there is first necessarily required a laborious and 
painful conflict, fought through the knowledge and hate of the 
miseries and beastliness of Vice ; and this painful passage to 
Virtue Virgil imitated in his translation of the Pythagorean 
letter Y. Icpojg, or sudor, is to be understood of sweat, ex labore 
etfatigatione orto. 

464 e Ovroc fitv 7ravdpKTrog. He tells here who is at all parts 
the best and happiest man, which Virgil even to a word almost 
recites, and therefore more than imitates, in this, Felix qui 
potuit rerum cognoscere causas, &cc. wherein our divine and all- 
teaching poet since describes three sorts of men ; one that loves 
virtue out of knowledge acquired and elaborate, which the 
philosopher calls scientiam acquwtam ; the second, that loves 
her out of admonitions, which he calls iufusam scientiam ; the 
third is he that hath neither of those two knowledges, nor is 
capable of either, having both these ignorances in him, viz. 
ignorantiam praviz dispositionis and puree negationis. Livy, as 
well as Virgil, recites this place almost ad verbum in Fabio et 
Minutio, in these words, S<epe ego audivi, milites, eum primum esse 
virum qui ipse consulat quid in rem sit ; secundum eum qui bene 
monenti obediat ; qui nee ipse consulere nee alleri parere scit eum 
extremi ingenii esse. 



170 FIRST BOOK OF THE 

"What now is beat* and will be best at thend. 

he is good, too, and enough doth kn< 
That only follows, being admonish'd fa 
But he that neither of himself can tell 
What fits a man, nor being admonished well 
Will give his mind to learn, but flat refuse, 
That man < from every human use. 

Dp thou, then, ever in thy memory place 
My precepts, Perses, sprung of sacred race, 
And work out what thou knoVst not, that with hate 
Famine may prosecute thy full es: 

I rich-wreath'd Ceres (reverenc'd of all) 
as much, and make her festival 
Amids thy granaries. Famine evermore 
Is natural consort of the idle boor. 
Whoever idly lives, both Gods and men 
Pursue with hateful and stffi-pmiishing spleen. 

tibial man is like the stingless drone, 
That all his power and disposition 
Employs to rob the labours of the bee, 
And with his sloth devours her indus: 

:ou repose thy special pleasure, then, 430 

I -:ill being conversant with temperate pain, 
That to thee still the Seasons may send home 
Their utmost store. With labour men become 
Herdful and rich ; with labour thou shalt prove 

est both in human and the Deities' lev 435 

One with another, all combin'd in one, 
Hate with infernal horror th' idle drone. 
Labour, and thrive, and th 5 idle 'twill inflame. 

hame to Labour ; Sloth is y th shanie. 

Glory and Virtue into consort fall 5co 



GEORGICS OF HESIOD. 171 

With wealth ; wealth, Godlike, wins the grace of all ; 

Since which jet springs out of the root of pain, 

f Pain hath precedence, so thou dost maintain 

The temper fitting, and the foolish vein 

Of striving for the wealth of other men 505 

Thou giv'st no vent, hut on thine own affairs 

Convert' st thy mind, and thereon lay'st thy cares. 

And then put on with all the spirit you can ; 

Shame is not good in any needy man. 

Shame much obscures, and makes as much to fame ; 

Wealth loves audacity ; Want favours shame. 511 

Eiches, not ravish'd, hut divinely sent 

For virtuous labour, are most permanent. 

If any stand on force, and get wealth so, 

Or with the tongue spoil, as a number do, 515 

When gain, or craft, doth overgo the soul, 

And impudence doth honest shame controul, 

God easily can the so-made-great disgrace, 

And his house, rais'd so, can as easily race. 

Eiches bear date but of a little space. 520 

g Who wrongs an humble suppliant, doth offend 
As much as he that wrongs a guest, or friend. 

503 f 'EpydZevQai, laborare autem melius. Notwithstanding he 
hath no other way to persuade his unwise brother to follow 
his business, and leave his strife in law for other men's goods, 
but to propose wealth and honour for the fruits of it, yet he 
prefers labour alone, joined with love of virtue and justice, 
and the good expence of a man's time, before wealth and honour 
with covetousness and contention. 

521 s^Ivov 8' oq, par est delictum. He says it is as great a sin 
to wrong a poor suppliant as to wrong a man's best friend or 
guest, which was then held one of the greatest impieties ; and 
to deceive an orphan of his dead parent's gift he affirms to be 
nothing less an offence than to ascend to the bed of his brother 5 
not that he makes all sins alike, but shows how horrible those 
sins are with which we are most familiar. 



172 FIRST BOOK OF THE 

Who for his brother's wife's love doth ascend 

His brother's bed, and hath his vicious end, 

Offends no more than he that doth deceive 525 

An orphan of the goods his parents leave ; 

Or he that in the wretched bounds of age 

Eeviles his father. All these Jove enrage, 

And shall receive of him revenge at last, 

Inflicting all pains that till then they past. 530 

From all these, therefore, turn thy striving mind, 
And to thy utmost see the Gods assign'd, 
Chastely and purely, all their holy dues. 
Burn fattest thighs to them ; and sometimes use 
Off 'rings of wine ; sometimes serve their delights 535 
With burning incense ; both when bed-time cites 
And when from bed the sacred morning calls ; 
That thou may'st render the Celestials 
All ways propitious ; and so none else gather 
Thy fortunes strow'd, but thou reap others rather. 540 

Suffer thy foe thy table ; call thy friend 
In chief one near, for if occasion send 
Thy household use of neighbours, they undrest 
Will haste to thee, where thy allies will rest 
Till they be ready. An ill neighbour is 545 

A curse ; a good one is as great a bliss. 
He hath a treasure, by his fortune sign'd, 
That hath a neighbour of an honest mind. 
~No loss of ox, or horse, a man shall bear, 
Unless a wicked neighbour dwell too near. 550 

Just measure take of neighbours, just repay, 
The same receiv'd, and more, if more thou may, 
That after needing, thou may'st after find 
Thy wants' supplier of as free a mind. 



GEOEGICS OF HESIOB. 173 

h Take no ill gain ; ill gain brings loss as ill. 555 

Aid quit with aid 5 good-will pay with good- will. 
Give him that hath given ; him that hath not give not ; 
Givers men give ; gifts to no givers thrive not. 
Giving is good, rapine is deadly ill. 
Who freely gives, though much, rejoice th still ; ©go 

Who ravines is so wretched, that, though small 
His first gift be, he grieves as if 'twere all. 

Little to little added, if oft clone, 
In small time makes a great possession. 
"Who adds to what is got, needs never fear 565 

That ^warth-cheek'd hunger will devour his cheer; 
k Xor will it hurt a man though something more 
Than serves mere need he lays at home in store ; 
And best at home, it may go less abroad. 
If cause call forth, at home provide thy rode, 570 

Enough for all needs, for free spirits (he 
To want, being absent from their owtl supply. 
"Which note, I charge thee. At thy purse's height, 1 

555 hj£tt/ea Ke pc., mala lucra cequalia in damnis. According to 
this of the Scripture, Male part am male disperit ; et de male quaz- 
sitis non gaudet fortius hares. 

565 iAt0o7ra \ipbv, atramfamem. Black or swarth he calls 
famine or hunger; ab effectu quod nigrum aid lucidum colorem 
inducat. 

567 k Ovck. He says it will not hurt a man to have a little 
more than needs merely laid up at home ; as we say, it will eat 
a man no meat, and prefers keeping a man's store at home to 
putting it forth, for it may go less so, as often it doth. 

573 l Wpxopsvov, incipiente dolio. At the beginning or height 
of a man's store he adviseth liberality, and at the bottom ; in 
the midst frugality ; admonishing therein not to be prodigal 
nor sordid or wretched ; but, as at the top of the cask wine is 
the weakest and thinnest, because it is most near the air, and 
therefore may there be best spent, at the bottom full of lees, 
and so may there be best spared, in the midst neatest and 
briskest, and should be then most made of or husbanded, so 
in the midst of a man's purse he adviseth parsimony. 



174 FIRST BOOK OF THE 

And when it fights low, give thy use his freight ; 

When in the midst thou art, then check the blood ; 575 

Frugality at bottom is not good. 

Even with thy brother think a m witness by, 

When thou would'st laugh, or converse liberally ; 

Despair hurts none beyond credulity. 

Let never D neat-girt dame, that all her wealth eso 
Lays on her waist, make profit of her stealth 
On thy true judgment ; nor be heard to feign 
With her fork'd tongue, so far forth as to gain 
Thy candle rent (she calls it). He that gives 
A woman trust doth trust a den of thieves. 585 

°One only son preserves a family, 
As feeding it with only fit supply. 
And that house to all height his riches rears 
Whose sire dies old, and leaves a son of years. 
To many children, too, God easily spares 590 

577 m ' EtW fxdprvpa QscOai, testem adbibeto. The critics expound 
it as if a man. talking privately and liberally with his brother, 
should confer so securely that he must ever bring a witness 
with him of what words passed him ; and the critics intend it 
personally, where the word QkoOai signifies here only supputa, 
cogita, hypothetical!}* . or by way of supposition ; QkcrOai coming 
of Ti9t]jiL, i. e. Qkaiv et viroQtaiv, facio, esto tit ita sit: suppose 
there were a witness by, and be as circumspect in speeches 
with your brother, even in your most private and free discourse, 
as if you supposed a third man heard you. The other exposition 
is to "be exploded. 

560 n UvyoaroXog, qui vel qua dunes exornat. 

086 o ^lovvoytvrjg, unigenitus. He says one only son preserves 
his father's house, and adds most ingeniously, <pepfiep.ev, i. e. 
pascendo seu nutriendo ; intending that he adds only necessary 
vital fuel, as it were, to his father's decaying fire ; where many 
sons oftentimes rather famish or extinguish a family than 
nourish or fuel it ; and yet he adds, most gravely and piously, 
that God can easily give store of goods fit for the greatest store 
of children ; but yet the more children the more care ; and 
speaking to the happiest state of a family, he prefers one sup- 
plier to many. 



GEOEGICS OF HESIOD. 175 

Wealth store ; but still, more children the more cares, 

And to the house the more access is made. 

If, then, the hearty love of wealth invade 

Thy thrifty mind, perform what follows here, 

p And, one work done, with others serve the year. 595 

595 v''Epc6iv,sicfacito. A general conclusion, and transition 
to. his doctrine of the next book. 



THE END OF THE FIRST BOOK. 





THE SECOND BOOK OF THE GEOEGICS 
OE HESIOD. 

HEX. Atlas' birth, the Pleiades arise. 
Harvest begin, plow when they leave 

Twio a and nights tl 

hide their heads : 
The year then turning, leave again their 1 
And show when first to whet the harves 5 

This likewise is the law the fields must feel. 
th with sea-dwellers, near and high, and the 
se winding yah tone overt: 

That a fenny grounds and marshes dwell upon, 
Alon£ the fat and fruitful re^ 10 

But. wheresoever thou inhabit'st, 
The fields before fierce winter's cruelty 

1 He begins fa ^mediately before he pre- 

pares his this whole book containing precej : 

husbandry, both for field and family. By the ascent an 
of the Pfc n. as well 

for ground near the seas as the fax The Pie: 

ealled the _ re the seven stars in the 

of the Ball, which ihe Latins called I which are 

seen near the sun rising, which is in June, he appoints entry 
on harvest atfairs : when in the morning they leave this hemi- 
sphere, which is in November, he designs seed-time. 

9 * m Aycea, pa lust rem terram significat. 



GEORGICS OF HESIOD. Ill 

Oppress thy pains, when thou may'st naked plow, 

Naked cast in thy seed, and naked mow, 

If timely thou wilt bear into thy barn 15 

The works of Ceres ; and to that end learn 

As timely to prepare thy whole increase, 

Lest, in the meantime, thy necessities 

Importune thee at others' doors to stand, 

And beg supplies to thy unthrifty hand ; 20 

As now thou com'st to me, but I no more 

Will give, or lend thee, what thou may'st restore 

By equal measure, nor will trust thee so. 

Labour, vain Perses, and those labours do, 

That, by the certain sign of beggary 25 

b Demonstrated in idle drones, thine eye 

May learn the work that equal Deity 

Imposeth of necessity on men ; 

Lest with thy wife, and wanting childeren, 

(Thy mind much griev'd) thou seek'st of neighbours food, 

Thine own means failing. Men grow cold in good. 31 

Some twice, or thrice, perhaps, thy neighbour will 

Supply thy wants ; whom if thou troubl'st still, 

Thou com'st off empty, and to air dost strain 

A world of words ; words store make wanting men. 35 

I charge thee, therefore, see thy thoughts einploy'd 

To pay thy debts, and how thou may'st avoid 

Deserved famine. To which end, first see 

Thy wife well order'd, and thy family ; 

Thy plow-drawn ox; thy c maid, without her spouse, 40 

26 b AiareKfiaipojiai } per signum demonstro ita ut conjectare sit 
facile. 

40 c KTr)Tr}v y famulam considerate acquisitam. He would have 
her likewise unmarried, ov yafxeri^v, non nuptam ; his reason 
he shows after. 



178 SECOND BOOK OF THE 

And wisely hir'd, that business in thy house 

May first work off, and then to tillage come. 

To both which offices make fit at home 

Everything needful, lest abroad thou send 

To ask another, and he will not lend ; 45 

Meantime thou want'st them, time flies fast away, 

Thy work undone, which not from day to day 

Thou should'st defer ; the d work-deferrer never 

Sees full his barn ; nor he that leaves work ever, 

And still is gadding out. e Care-flying ease oo 

Gives labour ever competent increase. 

f He that with doubt his needful business crosses 

Is ever wrastling with his certain losses. 

When, therefore, of the g swift-sharp-sighted sun 

The chief force faints, and h sweating heat is done, 55 

Autumn grown old, and Opening his last vein, 

And great Jove steeping all things in his rain, 

Man's body chang'd, and made more lightsome far, 

(For then but small time shines the Sirian star 

Above the heads of k hard-fate-foster'd man, eo 

Rising near day, and his beams Austrian 

Enjoy'd in night most,) — when, I say, all this 

Follows the season, and the forest is 



48 d 'EritMnoepybg, non assiduus in opere. 

50 e Mt\trri, cura cum industrid et exercitatione. 

52 { 'Afij3o\iepybQ, qui opus de die in diem rejicit et procrastinat . 

54 %'OZeoq fjeXioio, metaphorice accipitur pro acumine et visus 
celeritate. 

55 h 'l£a\i/iO£, sudorificus humidus calor does not express the 
word, being so turned in the verbal translation. 

5S i ^[tT07ru)pLv6g, qui extremi el senescentis Autumni est. 

60 ^KrjpiTpeQrjg, qui una cum tethifero fato alitur, vet qui edu~ 
catur inter multas durte, sortis miserias, the most fit epithet of 
man. 

63 Pro sylva. 



GEORGICS OF HESIOD. 179 

Sound, being fell'd, his leaves upon the ground 
Before let fall, and leaving what they crown'd, 65 

Then constantly take time to fell thy wood ; 
Of husbandry the time kept is the blood. 

Cut then your three-foot J quern ; whose pestle cut 
Three cubits long ; your axletree seven foot. 
If it be eight foot, cut your mallet thence ; 70 

The felfs, that make your cart's circumference, 
Cut three spans long. Many crook' d pieces more, 
Ten palms in length, fell for your wagons' store. 
All which poor rules a rich convenience yield. 

If thou shalt find a culter in the field, 75 

Or on the mountain, either elm or oak, 
Convey it home, since, for thy beasts of yoke 
To plow withal, 'twill most his strength maintain ; 
And, chiefly, if m Athenian Ceres' swain 
It fixing to the draught-tree, lest it fails, 80 

Shall fit it to the handles' stay with nails. 

Two plows compose, to find thee work at home, 
One with a share that of itself doth come 
From forth the plow's whole piece, and one set on ; 
Since so 'tis better much, for, either gone, 85 

With th' other thou may'st instantly impose 
Work on thy oxen. On the laurel grows, 
And on the elm, your best plow-handles ever ; 
Of oak your draught-tree ; from the maple never 
Go for your culter ; for your oxen chuse 90 

Two males of nine years' old, for then their use 

68 [ "0\/*oi>. A kind of mortar to bray corn in, which the 
ancients used for a little mill or quern. 

79 m' A9r}vairiQ dfiwog, Attics Cereris servus ; a periphrasis of 
a plowman ; she being called Attic Ceres, quod ipsa Athenieuses, 
adeoque omnes homines, defrugibus docuerit. 



180 SECOND BOOK OF THE 

Is most available, since their strengths are then 

Not of the weakest, and the youthful mean 

Sticks in their nerves still ; nor will these contend 

With skittish tricks, when they the stitch should end, 95 

To break their plow, and leave their work undone. 

These let a youth of n forty wait upon, 

Whose bread at meals in four good shivers cut, 

Eight bits in every shive; for °that man, put 

To his fit task, will see it done past talk 100 

With any fellow, nor will ever balk 

In any stitch he makes, but give his mind 

With care t' his labour. And this man no hind 

(Though much his younger) shall his better be 

At sowing seed, and, shunning skilfully, 105 

Need to go over his whole work again. 

Your younger man feeds still a flying vein 

From his set task, to hold his equals chat, 

And trifles works he should be serious at. 109 

Take notice, then, when thou the crane shalt hear 
Aloft out of the clouds her clanges rear, 
That then he gives thee signal when to sow, 
And Winter's wrathful season doth foreshow ; 



97 n Terparpv(pov,6Krd(3\(Ofiov,qiiadriJiduTn,octomorsuum. He 
commends a man of forty for a most fit servant ; and therefore 
prescribes allowance of bread to his meals something extra- 
ordinary, saying he would have allowed four shives of bread 
at a meal to his meat, every shive containing eight bits or 
morsels 5 not that the whole four shives should contain but 
eight morsels, as the critics expound it ; for how absurd is it 
to imagine a shive of bread but two bits ? and how pinching a 
diet it were for an able plow-man ? 

99 o "Oc k tpyov. Qui quidem opus curans, et atatis quam in 
servo requirit (says Melancthon) rationes addit admodum graves, 
sentitque multum situm esse in maturitate (Etatis. Forty years 
then being but a youth's age. 



GEORGICS OF HESIOD. 181 

And then the man, that can no oxen get, 

Or wants the season's work, his heart doth eat. 115 

Then feed thy oxen in the house with hay ; 

Which he that wants with ease enough will say, 

" Let me, alike, thy wain and oxen use." 

Which 'tis as easy for thee to refuse, 

And say thy oxwork then importunes much. 120 

He that is rich in brain will answer such : 

u Work up thyself a wagon of thine own ; 

For to the foolish borrower is not known 

That each wain asks a hundred joints of wood ; 

These things ask forecast, and thou shouldst make good 

At home before thy need so instant stood." 126 

When, therefore, first fit plow-time doth disclose, 
Put on thy spirit ; all, as one, dispose 
Thy servants and thyself; plow wet and dry; 
And when Aurora first affords her eye, 130 

In Spring-time, turn the earth up ; which see done 
Again, past all fail, by the Summer's sun. 
Hasten thy labours, that thy crowned fields 
May load themselves to thee, and rack their yields. 
The tilth-field sow on earth's most light foundations ; 135 
The p tilth-field, banisher of execrations, 
Pleaser of sons and daughters ; which, t' improve 
With all wish'd profits, pray to earthly Jove, 
And virtuous Ceres, that on all such suits 
Her sacred gift bestows in blessing fruits. uo 

136 vNsioq aXeZiaprj, novalis imprecationum expultrix. The 
tilth-field he calls banisher of execrations, and pleaser of sons 
and daughters 5 first, because rude husbandmen use to curse 
when their crops answer not their expectations; and next, 
it pleases sons and daughters since it helps add to their 
portions. 



132 SECOND BOOK OF THE 

When first thou enter'st foot to plow thy land, 
And on thy plow-staffs top hast laid thy hand, 
Thy oxen's hacks, that next thee hy a chain 
Thy oaken draught- tree draw, put to the pain 
Thy goad imposes ; and thy hoy behind, U5 

That with his iron rake thou hast designed 
To hide thy seed, let from his labour drive 
The birds that offer on thy sweat to live. 
The best thing that in human needs doth fall 
Is Industry, and Sloth the worst of all. 150 

With one, thy corn-ears shall with fruit abound, 
And bow their thankful foreheads to the ground ; 
With th' other, scarce thy seed again redound. 

When Jove, then, gives this good end to thy pain, 
Amids the vessels that preserve thy grain 155 

No spiders then shall need t' usurp their room, 
But thou, I think, rejoice, and rest at home, 
Provision inn'd enough of everything 
To give thee glad heart till the neighbour Spring, 
Not go to others to supply thy store, 160 

But others need to come to thee for more. 

If at the sun's conversion thou shalt sow 
The sacred earth, thou then may'st q sit and mow 
Or reap in harvest ; such a little pain 
Will serve thy use to sell thy thin -grown grain, 165 
And reaps so scanty will take up thy hand ; 
Thou hid in dust, not comforted a sand, 
But gather 'gainst the grain. Thou should'st be then 



163 ^"Efuievog, sedens. He disproves sowing at the winter 
solstice, and says he that doth sow then may sit and reap for 
any labour his crop will require ; a reap they call as much as 
at once the reaper grasps in his hand. 



GEOEGICS OF HESIOD. 183 

Coop'd in a basket up : for worldly men 
Admire no imthrifts, Honour goes by gain. 1:0 

As times still change, so ehangeth Jove his mind, 
"Whose seasons mortal men can hardly tind. 

But if thou shoiddst sow late, this well may be. 
In all thy slackness, an excuse for thee : 
"When in the oak's green arms the cuckoo sings, 175 
And first delights men in the lovely springs. 
If much rain fall, 'tis tit then to defer 
Thy sowing work : but how much rain to bear, 
And let no labour to that much give ear 
Past intermission, let Jove steep the grass 180 

Three days together, so he do not pass 
An ox's hoof in depth, and never stay 
To strow thy seed in ; but if deeper way 
Jove with his rain makes, then forbear the field, 
For late-sown then will past the foremost yield. 186 

Mind well all this : nor let it fly thy pow'rs 
To know what fits the white Spring's early flow'rs ; 
Nor when rains timely fall : nor, when sharp cold 
In Winter's wrath doth men from work withhold, 
Sit by smiths' forges/ nor warm taverns s haunt, 190 
Nor let the bitterest of the season daunt 
Thy tlmft-arin'd pains, like idle Poverty : 
For then the time is when tlf industrious thigh 
Upholds, with all increase, his family. 

190 r Xa\jc£ iov 9u)kov } (Eneam sedem. By which he understands 
smiths' forges, where the poorer sort of Greece used to sit, as 
they do still in the winter amongst us. and as amongst the Ro- 
mans, in tomtrinh, or barbers' shops. 

190 s 'E7ra\sa \i<T\//i\ caiidam tabernam. These \£(?x a i were of 
old said to hold the meetings of philosophers ; and after, be- 
cause amongst them mixed idle talkers over caps, they were 
called Xkffxai, nugce, Xeoxwia, loquaciias or garrulitas. 



184 SECOND BOOK OF THE 

With whose rich hardness spirited, do thou 195 

Poor Delicacy fly, lest, frost and snow 

Fled from her love, Hunger sit both them out, 

And make thee, with the beggar's lazy gout, 

Sit stooping to the pain, still pointing to \ 

And with a *lean hand stroke a foggy foot. 200 

The slothful man expecting many things, 
With his vain hope that cannot stretch her wings 
Past need of necessaries for his kind, 
Turns, u like a whirlpit, over in his mind 
All means that rapine prompts to th' idle hind ; 205 

Sits in the tavern, and finds means to spend 
111 got, and ever doth to worse contend. 

WTien Summer, therefore, in her tropic sits, 
Make thou thy servants wear their winter wits, 
And tell them this, ere that warm season wast 210 

Make nests, for Summer will not ever last. 
The month of x January's all-ill days, 
For oxen's good, shun now by July's rays. 

200 l As7TTy Se,macilentaverocrassumpedemmanupremas. Aris- 
totle in his problems, as out of this place, affirms that daily 
and continual hunger makes men's feet and ankles swell ; and 
by the same reason superiores partes extenuantur et macrescunt, 
for which Hesiod uses this ingenious allusion to his bother, 
advising him to take heed ne pedem tumefaclum tenui manu 
demulcere oporteat 5 rrii^io, signifying here demuleeo, not strin- 
gendo crucio, or premo, as it is usually rendered. But (for the 
pain) stroke or touch it softly, for some ease to it, though it 
doth little good to it, but only makes good the proverb, Ubi 
dolor ibi digitus. 

204 u Kaicd 7rpo(je\^aTO, mala intra animum versat. And there- 
fore says Melancthon, out of Columella, homines nihil agendo 
male agere discunt ; but 7rpo<T6\tKaTo signifies not only versat, 
but instar undarum fiuvii vel voraginis versat. 

212 xMrjva de A-nvaiwva, mensis in quofestum in honorem Lenei 
celebratur. Bacchus being called Xrjvaloc, quoniam torcularibus 
et vini eipressioni preest ; and because his feast used to be so- 
lemnized in January, Arjvaiujv is called Januarium, 



GEORGICS OF HE SI OD. 185 

When air's chill y North his noisome frosts shall blow 

All over earth, and all the wide sea throw 215 

At heaven in hills, from cold horse-breeding Thrace ; 

The beaten earth, and all her sylvan race, 

Roaring and bellowing with his bitter strokes ; 

Plumps of thick fir-trees and high-crested oaks 

Torn up in rallies, all air's flood let fly 220 

In him at Earth, sad nurse of all that die ; 

Wild beasts abhor him, and run clapping close 

Their sterns betwixt their thighs ; and even all those 

Whose hides their fleeces line with highest proof, 

Even ox-hides also want expulsive stuff, 225 

And bristled goats, against his bitter gale, 

He blows so cold he beats quite through them all. 

Only with silly sheep it fares not so ; 

For they each summer fleec'd, their fells to grow, 

They shield all winter, crush'd into his wind. 230 

He makes the old man trudge for life to find 

Shelter against him ; but he cannot blast 

The tender and the delicately-grac't 

Flesh of the virgin, she is kept within 

Close by her mother, careful of her skin, 235 

Since yet she never knew how to enfold 

The force of Venus swimming all in gold ; 

Whose snowy bosom, choicely wash'd and balm'd 

With wealthy oils, she keeps the house becalm'd 

All winter's spite. When in his fireless shed 210 

And miserable roof still hiding head, 



214 yJJveixravrog Bopiao,fiante Borea hiemis tempus, et mensem 
Boreali frigore gravisnimum copiose et eleganter descripsit, says 
Melancthon. 



1S6 SECOND BOOK OF THE 

The z boneless fish doth eat his feet for cold, 

To whom the sun doth never food unfold, 

But turns above the black men's populous towers, 

On whom he more bestows his radiant hours 245 

Than on th' a Hellenians, then all beasts of horn, 

And srnooth-brow'd, that in beds of wood are born, 

About the oaken dales that north-wind fly, 

Gnashing their teeth with restless misery ; 

And everywhere that care solicits all 250 

That, out of shelter, to their coverts fall, 

And caverns eaten into rocks ; and then 

Those wild beasts shrink, like tame b three-footed men 

Whose backs are broke with age, and foreheads driven 

To stoop to earth, though born to look on heaven ; 255 

Even like to these those tough-bred rude ones go, 

Flying the white drifts of the northern snow. 

Then put thy body's best munition on, 

Soft waistcoats, weeds that th' ankles trail upon ; 

And with a little linen, weave much wool 260 

In forewov'n webs, and make thy garments full. 

And these put on thee, lest thy harsh-grown hair 

Tremble upon thee, and into the air 

Start, as affrighted ; all that breast of thine 

Pointed with c bristles like a porcupine. 265 

About thy feet see fitted shoes be tied, 

242 z, Av6(Treog i exossis. He intends the polypus, that hath no 
bones, but a gristle for his back -bone. 

246 a Have \\i]vs<T<Ji. Hellen was son to Deucalion, of whom, as 
being author of that nation, "EWtjv, dicitur Gracus, ut testatur 
Plinius, lib. 4, cap. 7. The sun being in Sagittarius is longer 
with the ^Ethiops, which are meridional, than with the Gre- 
cians. 

253 brfpiirodi (3poToi tffoi, tripodi homiid similes. He calls old 
men helped with staves in their gait three-footed. 

265 c'Aap£( Vj pennarum in more in allum erigere. 



OEORQICS OF HESIOD. 187 

Made of a strongly-dying ox's hide, 

Lin'd with d wool socks ; besides, when those winds blow 

Thy first-falPn kid-skins sure together sow 

With ox's sinews, and about thee throw, 270 

To be thy refuge 'gainst the soaking rain. 

Upon thy head a quilted hat sustain, 

That from thy ears may all air's spite expell. 

When north-winds blow the air is sharp and fell ; 

But morning air, that e brings a warmth withal 275 

Down from the stars, and on the earth doth fall, 

Expires a breath that, all things cheering then, 

Is fit to crown the works of blessed men. 

Which drawing out of floods that ever flow, 

Wind- storms are rais'd on earth, that roughly blow ; 280 

And then sometimes a shower falls towards even, 

And sometimes air in empty blasts is driven, 

Which from the north-wind rising out of Thrace, 

And gloomy clouds, rais'd, haste thee home apace, 

Thy work for that day done, th' event forseen, 285 

Lest out of Heaven a dark cloud hide thee clean, 

Thy weeds wet through, and steep thee to the skin ; 

But shun it, for when this cold month comes in 

Extreme it is for sheep, extreme for men. 

Take from thy oxen half their commons f then, 290 

But mend thy servants', for ingenious Night, 

268 d ETiXoic, not pilis as it is usually translated, but ioculis 
tune is. 

271 e 'A?)/o TTvpcxpopog, uer ignifer, not f rug if er, though fruits 
are the chief effects of it, but air that brings a comfortable fire 
with it, and he says, air' ovpavou a(rreo6ei>Tog, a coelo steUifero. 

25)0 f T/y/xoc, turn, &;c. Then sharpen tiiy oxen's stomachs with 
taking away half their allowance, but give more to thy ser- 
vants ; his reason is, because the days being shorter by half 
then than in summer, and so take away half the work of the 
ox, therefore half their fother should be in equal husbandry 



18S SECOND BOOK OF THE 

Then great in length, affects the appetite 

With all contention, and alacrity 

To all invention, and the scrutiny 

Of all our objects, and must therefore feast 295 

To make the spirits run high in their inquest. 

These well observing all the year's remain, 

The days and nights grow equal ; till again 

Earth, that of all things is the Mother Queen, 

All fruits promiscuously brings forth for men. 300 

When, after sixty turnings of the sun, 

By Jove's decrees, all Winter's hours are run, 

Then does the evening-star, 8 Arcturus, rise, 

And leave the unmeasur'd ocean ; all men's eyes, 

First noting then his beams ; and after him, 305 

Before the clear morn's light hath chac'd the dim, 

Pandion's Swallow breaks out with her moan, h 

Made to the light, the Spring but new put on. 

Preventing which, cut vines, for then 'tis best ; 

But when the horn'd house-bearer leaves his rest, 310 

abated 5 but since servants must work in night as well, and 
that the nights are much longer, he would have their commons 
increased, allowing even those bodily labourers, in a kind of 
proportion, the same that is fit for mental painstakers, students, 
&c, for the word eixppovai, taken here for nights, is usurped 
for the effects of night, ev<ppovsiov signifying prudentiu vatens, 
and lixppovT) is called night, quod putaretur multum conferre ad 
inventionem earum quat quwruntur, intending in studies and 
labours of the soul, especially the epithet ejrippoOot, signifying 
auxilium sen inspirationem Jereutes magna cum alacritaie et con- 
tentions. All that since therefore the words containing, a man 
may observe how verbal expositors slubber up these divine 
expressions with their contractions and going the next way. 

303 s 'Apieroupot;, Arcturus is a star sub zona Boot& ; oritur 
ves]>ere y initio Vtris. 

-* 07 h '0()fy)oyoi/, ante lucano tempore quiritans. The construc- 
tion should be, not prorumpit ad lucem, but lugens ad iucem y 
since it came not soon enough to prevent the night's tyranny 
in Tereus; the fiction of which is too common to be repeated. 



GEOEGICS OF IIESIOD. 189 

And climbs the plants, the Seven Stars then in flight, 
Nowhere dig vines, but scythes whet, and excite 
Servants to work ; fly shady tavern bow'rs, 
And beds, as soon as light salutes the flow'rs. 

In harvest, when the sun the body dries, 315 

Then haste and fetch the fields home ; early rise, 
That plenty may thy household wants suffice ; 
The morn the third part of thy work doth gain ; 
The morn makes short thy way, makes short thy pain ; 
The morn being once up fills the ways with all, 320 

And yokes the ox, herself up, in his stall. 

When once the thistle doth his flower prefer, 
And on the tree the garrulous grashopper, 
Beneath her wings, all day and all night long 
Sits pouring out her derisory song, 325 

When Labour drinks, his boiling sweat to thrive, 
Then goats grow fat, then best wine choose, then strive 
Women for work most, and men least can do ; 
For then the Dog-star burns his drought into 
Their brains and knees, and all the body dries. 330 

But then betake thee to the shade that lies 
In shield of rocks ; drink l Biblian wine, and eat 
The creamy wafer, goats' milk that the teat 
Gives newly free and nurses kids no more, 
Flesh of bough-browsing beeves that never bore, 335 
And tender kids ; and, to these, taste black wine, 
The k third part water of the crystalline 

332 i Bij3\ivog i Biblinum vinum dicitura Bibliu regione Thracia, 
ubi nobilissima vinu sunt. 

337 ^Tptlg vdciTOQytertiam aqua partem infunde. The Greeks 
never drunk merum, but dilutum vinum, wine allay 'd with water. 
Athenaeus says that to two cups of wine sometimes they put five 
cups of water, and sometimes to four of wine but two of water, 



190 SECOND BOOK OF THE 

Still-flowing fount that feeds a stream beneath ; 
And sit in shades where template gales may breath 
On thy oppos'd cheeks, when Orion's rays 340 

His influence in first ascent assays. 

Then to thy labouring servants give command 
To dight the sacred gift of Ceres' hand, 
In some place windy, on a weU-plan'd floor, 
Which all by measure into vessels pour. 345 

Make then thy man-swain one that hath no house, 
Thy handmaid one that hath nor child nor spouse, 
Handmaids that children have are ravenous. 
A mastiff likewise nourish still at home, 
Whose l teeth are sharp and close as any comb, 350 

And meat him well, to keep with stronger guard 
The m day-sleep-wake-night man from forth thy yard, 
That else thy goods into his caves will bear. 
Inn hay and chaff enough for all the year 
To serve thy oxen and thy mules, and then 355 

Loose them, and ease the dear knees of thy men. 

When Sirius and Orion aspire 
To heaven's steep height, and bright Arcturus' fire 
The rosy-finger' d Morning sees arise, 
O Perses, then thy vineyard faculties 360 

See gather'd and got home ; which twice five days 
And nights, no less, expose to Phcebus' rays ; 
Then five days inn them, and in vessels close 
The gift the gladness-causing God bestows. 

But after that the Seven-stars and the Five 365 

which they order according to the strength or weakness of 
their wine. 

340 l Kapxap6Sovg, denies inter se pectinatim coeuntes habeas. 

352 m ' B fiipoKoirot; avj}p, die dormiens vir. A periphrasis of a 
thief. 



GEORGICS OF HESIOD. 191 

That 'twist the Bull's horns at their set arrive, 
Together with the great Orion's force, 
Then ply thy plow as fits the season's course. 

If of a n chance-complaining man at seas 
The humour take thee, when the Pleiades 370 

Hide head and fly the fierce Orion's chace, 
And the dark-deep Oceanus embrace, 
Then diverse gusts of violent winds arise ; 
And then attempt no naval enterprise, 
But ply thy land- affairs, and draw ashore 375 

Thy ship, and fence her round with stonage store, 
To shield her ribs against the humourous gales ; 
Her pump exhausted, lest Jove's rainy falls 
Breed putrefaction ; all tools fit for her, 
And all her tacklings, to thy house confer ; 380 

Contracting orderly all needful things 
That imp a water-treading vessel's wings ; 
Her well-wrought stern hang in the smoke at home, 
Attending time till fit sea-seasons come ; 
And then thy swift sail launch, conveying in 385 

Burthen that richly may that trade begin, 
As did our father who a voyage went 
For want of an estate so competent 
As free life ask'd ; and long since landed here 
When he had measur'd the unmeasur'd sphere 390 

Of all the sea, -^EoHan Cumas leaving, 
Not ° flying wealth, (revenues great receiving, 

369 n^ V(T7r ^0 £ \ o ^ ) q U i fa sor t e su £ queritur. 

392 °Ovic d(pevog <pevyu)v } non redditus seu divitius fugiens. He 
blames those that having richly enough of their own, which 
they freely and safely possess ashore, will yet, with insatiate 
desire of more, venture the loss of all ; which his father, he 
says, was not to be blamed for, in going to sea, who only took 



192 SECOXD BOOK OF THE 

And bliss itself possess'd in ah fit store, 

If wisely uaV) : yet selling that t' explore 

Strange countries, madly covetous of more,) ;-so 

But only dunning loathsome pow 

Which yet Jove sends, and men should never fly. 

The seat that he was left to dwell upon 

Was set in A sera, near to Helicon, 

Amids a miserable village there, Ml 

In winter vile, in summer noisomer, 

And profitable never. Note thou, then, 

To do all works the proper season when, 

a -works chiefly ; for whose use allow 
A little ship, but in her bulk bestow \:-c 

A great big burthen — the more ships sustain 
The surer sail they, and heap gain on gain, 
If seas run smooth and rugged gusts abstain. 
^Tien thy vain mind, then, would sea-ventures try, 
In love the laud-rocks of loath'd Debt to fly, 410 

And p Hunger's ever harsh-to-hear-of cry, 
I'll set before thee all the trim and dress 
Of those btill-roaring-noise-resounding seas, 
Though q neither skill'd in either ship or sail, 
Nor ever was at sea; or, lest I fail, IIS 

But for Eutxea once from Aulis, where 
The Greeks, with tempest driven, for shore did stere 
Their mighty navy, gather d to employ 

that course to avoid poverty, his means hy land not enough to 
live withal freely. 

411 ^ : Artp-jria Xi^wv^famem avditu insuavem. 

414 QOvrt rt, etn neque navigandi peritus. Melanethon. in 
this free confession of his unskilfulness in what he intended to 
teach, gives this note : Removet «€ reprthem>ioii£m ob imp er itm m ; 
hie videmui, aofpi^ttv. primo usurpatvm Jui&if. cum laud*, fro 
docere et tradere atiquld erttditius pre aliis. 



GEOEGICS OF HESIOD. 19.3 

For sacred Greece 'gainst fair-dame-breeding Troy ; 

To Chalcis there I made by sea my pass, 420 

And to the Games of great r Ampliidamas, 

Where many a fore-studied exercise 

Was instituted, with exciteful prize, 

For great-and-good and able-minded men ; 

And where I won, at the Pierian pen, 425 

A three-ear'd tripod, which I offered on 

The altars of the Maids of Helicon ; 

Where first their loves initiated me 

In skill of their unworldly harmony. 

But no more practice have my travails swet 430 

In many-a-nail -composed ships ; and yet 

I'll sing what Jove's mind will suggest in mine, 

Whose Daughters taught my verse the rage divine. 

Fifty days after heaven's converted heat, 
When Summer's land-works are dissolv'd with sweat, 
Then grows the navigable season fit, 43* 

For then no storms rise that thy sail may split, 
Nor spoil thy sailors ; if the God that sways 
Th' earth- shaking trident do not overpaise, 
With any counsel beforehand decreed, 410 

The season's natural grace to thy good speed, 
Nor Jove consent with his revengeful will, 
In whom are fixt the bounds of good and ill. 
But in the usual temper of the year, 



421 r 'Au0('£a/xac, king of Eubcca, was slain in battle against 
the Erythneans ; at whose funerals his sons instituted Games. 
And from hence Melancthon gathers, by that time in which 
the king died, Hesiod then living, that Homer lived a hundred 
years before him, and so could not be the man from whom 
our author is affirmed by some historians to win the prize he 
now speaks of. 



1J)4 SECOND BOOK OF THE 

Easy to judge of, and distinguish clear, 445 

Are both the winds and seas, none rude, none cross, 
Nor misaffected with the love of loss ; 
And therefore put to sea ; trust even the wind 
Then with thy swift ship ; but when thou shalt find 
Fit freight for her, as fitly stow it straight, 4.->o 

And all haste home make. For no new wine wait, 
Nor aged Autumn's showers, nor Winter's falls 
Then fast approaching, nor the noisome gales 
The humorous South breathes, that incense the seas, 
And s raise together in one series 455 

Jove's Autumn dashes, that come smoking down, 
And with his roughest brows make th' ocean frown. 

But there's another season for the seas, 
That in the first Spring others' choices please ; 
When, look how much the crow takes at a stride, 460 
So much put forth the young leaf is descried 
On fig-tree tops ; but then the gusts so fall, 
That oft the sea becomes impervial. 
And yet this vernal season many use 
For sea affairs ; which yet I would not chuse, 465 

Nor give it my mind any grateful taste, 
Since then steals out so many a ravenous blast ; 
Nor but with much scath thou canst 'scape thy bane, 
Which yet men's greedy follies dare maintain. 
Money is soul to miserable men, 470 

And to it many men their souls bequeath. 
To die in dark-seas is a dreadful death. 

All this I charge thee, need to note no more ; 
Nor in one vessel venture all thy store, 

455 s' O^aprffffaQyCOslestem imbremse.cutus; intending a following 
of those things quaz serie quudam continud *e sequuntur. 



GEORGICS OF HESIOD. 195 

But most part leave out, and impose the less, 175 

For 'tis a wretched thing t' endure distress 

Incurr'd at sea; and 'tis as ill, ashore 

To use adventures, covetous of more 

Than safety warrants, as upon thy wain 

To lay on more load than it can sustain ; *:*■ 

For then thy axle hreaks, thy goods diminish, 

Aud thrift's mean means in violent av'rice vanish. 

The mean ohserv'd makes an exceeding state ; 

Occasion took at all times equals Fate. 

Thyself if well in years, thy wife take home *S5 

Not much past thirty, nor have much to come ; 
But being young thyself, nuptials that seise 
The times' best season in their acts are these : 
At 'fourteen years a woman grows mature, 
At fifteen wed her, and best means inure «no 

To marry her a maid, to teach her then 
Respect to thee and chasteness t 1 other men. 
In chief, choose one whose life is u near thee bred, 
That her condition circularly weigh'd, 
(And that with care, too,) in thy neighbours' eyes, 12 
Thou wedd'st not for a maid their mockeries. 
No purchase passes a good wife, no loss 
Is than a bad wife a more cursed cross, 
That must a gossip be at every feast, 
And private cates provide, too, for her guest, 
And bear her husband ne'er so bold a breast, 

4t3 l Terop\ Pullux expounds this word, which is usually 
taken for tour, fourteen. Plat j and Aristotle appoint the best 
time of women's marriages at eighteen. 

493 u'EyyuOi vaitt, qmr prope te habitat. His counsel is, to 
marry a maid bred near a man, whose breeding and behaviour 
he hath still taken into note. Counsel of gold, but not respected 
in this iron age. 



196 SECOND BOOK OF THE 

x Without a fire burns in him even to rage, 
And in his youth pours grief on him in age. 

The Gods' y fore warnings, and pursuits of men 
Of impious lives with unavoidud pain, 505 

Their sight, their rule of all, their love, their fear, 
z Watching and sitting up give all thy care. 

Give a never to thy friend an even respect 
With thy born brother, for in his neglect 
Thyself thou touchest first with that defect. 510 

If thou shalt take thy friend with an offence 

By word, or deed, twice only, try what sense 

He hath of thy abuse by making plain 

The wrong he did thee ; and if then again 

He will turn friend, confess and pay all pain 515 

Due for his forfeit, take him into grace ; 

The shameless man shifts friends still with his place. 

But keep thou friends, forgive, and so convert 

That not thy look may reprehend thy heart. 

50a x ]?{ ia £ Tt p SaXov, torret sine face et crudai senecta tradit ; 
cjp<p yijpa'i, senecta ante tempus adveuiens, which place Boetius 
imitates in his book De Consolations in this distich : 
Intempestivijunduntur tertice cant, 
It dolor mtutemjuttit inesse warn, 
[Chapman has misquoted these lines. They are not a dis- 
tich. The whole passage is as follows : 

Venit enim proper at a malis in op in a senectus y 

It dolor (Etalemjussit inesse suam. 
Intempestivijunduntur verlice cani, 

Et (remit ejj oeto corpore luia cutis. — Ed.] 
504 y'07riQ, in God, signifies insight and government in all 
things, and his just indignation against the impious j in man, 
respect to the fear of God, and his reverence. Melancthon. 
607 z Y\t(pv\ayp'tvoc, vigiliis et ezcubiis posit is. 
sob ajvf ,jfl£ # This precept of preferring a man's own brother 
to his friend is full of humanity, and savours of the true taste 
of a trueborn man ; the neglect of which in these days shows 
children either utterly misbegotten, or got by unnatural fathers, 
of whom children must taste, in disposition, as a poison of de- 
generacy poured into them both, and a just plague for both. 



GEORGICS OF HESIOD. 197 

Be not a common host for guests, nor one 520 

That can abide the kind receipt of none. 
Consort none ill though rais'd to any state, 
Nor leave one ^ood though ne'er so ruinate. 
Abhor all taking pleasure to upbraid 
A forlorn poverty, which God hath laid 523 

On any man in so severe a kind 
As quite disheartens and dissolves his mind. 
Amongst men on the earth there never sprung 
An ampler treasure than a sparing tongue ; 
Which yet most grace gains when it sings the mean. 530 
Ill-speakers ever hear as ill again. 
Make not thyself at any public feast 
A troublesome or over-curious guest ; 
'Tis common cheer, nor touches thee at all ; 
Besides, thy grace is much, thy cost is small. 535 

Do not thy tongue's grace the disgrace to lie, 
Nor mend a true-spoke mind with policy, 
But all things use with first simplicity. 

To Jove nor no God pour out morning wine 
With unwash'd hands ; for, know, the Powers Divine 5-10 
Avert their ears, and prayers impure reject. 

Put not thy urine out, with face erect, 
Against b the Sun, but, sitting, let it fall, 
Or turn thee to some undiscovering wall ; 



543 b Mj7<T clvt ijtXiov, neque contra solan versus erectus meito. 
He would have no contempt against the Sun; either directly, or 
allegorically, intending by the Sun great and reverend men, 
against whom nihil proteriM et irreverentev agendum. If in the 
plain sense, which he makes serious, he would not have a man 
make water turning purposely against the Sun, nor standing, 
but sitting, as at this day even amongst the rude Turks it is 
abhorred, quibut religiosum est ut sedentes mingunt, et ingens Jia> 
git 1 am deslguari credunt siquis in publico cacaret uut mingeret. 



198 SECOND BOOK OF THE 

And, after the great Sun is in descent, Mo 

Remember, till he greet the Orient, 

That, in way or without, thou still forbear, 

Nor ope thy nakedness while thou art there. 

The nights the Gods' are, and the godly man 

And wife will shun by all means to profane 550 

The Gods' appropriates. c Make no access, 

Thy wife new left, to sacred mysteries, 

Or coming from an ominous funeral feast ; 

But, from a banquet that the Gods have blest 

In men whose spirits are frolicly inclin'd, 555 

Perform those rites that propagate thy kind. 

Never the fair waves of eternal floods 
Pass with thy feet, but first invoke the Gods, 
Thine eyes cast on their streams; which those that wade, 
Their hands unwash'd, those Deities invade 500 

With future plagues and even then angry are. 

Of thy d five branches see thou never pare 
The dry from off the green at solemn feasts ; 
Nor on the quaffing mazers of thy guests 
Bestow the bowl vow'd to the Powers Divine, 505 

For harmful fate is swallow'd with the wine. 

When thou hast once begun to build a house, 
Leav't not unfinish'd, lest the ominous 

551 c M/;£' aidola. Melancthon expounds this place, a con- 
gresdii uioris ne sacra accedas, whom I have followed 5 iuacptjfiog 
sipiities here iuf'austus, and ru(poc,funebre epulum. 

tfa dMijo' enrb ttivtoZoio. He says a man must not pare his 
nails at the table ; in which our reverend author is so respectful 
and moral in his setting down, that he nameth not nails, but 
calls what is to be pared away, avov, siccum or aridum, and the 
nail itself, \\ujpbv, viridum, because it is still growing ; he calls 
likewise the hands wivToior, quit in quinos ramos dinpergitur, 
because it puts out five fingers like branches. 

564 [Mazers— cups. See Kichardsox.] 



GEORQICS OF HESIOD. 199 

Ill-spoken crow encounter thee abroad, 

And from her bough thy means outgone explode. 570 

From three -foot pots of meat set on the fire . 
To serve thy house ; serve not thy taste's desire 
With ravine of the meat till on the board 
Thou seest it set, and sacrifice afford, 
Not if thou wash first, and the Gods wouldst please 575 
With that respect to them ; for even for these 
Pains are impos'd, being all impieties. 

On tombstones, or fiVd seats, no boy permit, 
That's grown to twelve years old, to idly sit ; 
For 'tis not good, but makes a slothful man. 5so 

In baths, whose waters women first began 
To wash their bodies in, should bathe no man ; 
For in their time even these parts have their pain 
Grievous enough. If any homely place, 
Sylvan or other, thou seest vow'd to grace 585 

Of any God, by fire made for the weal 
Of any poor soul mov'd with simplest zeal, 
Mock not the mysteries, for God disdains 
Those impious parts, and pays them certain pains. 

Never in channels of those streams that pay 590 

The ocean tribute give thy urine way ; 
Nor into e fountains ; but, past all neglect, 
See thou avoid it ; for the grave respect 
Given to these secrets meets with blest effect. 

Do this, and fly the people's f bitter fame, £95 

592 e ]-[i rec te infontes immingere dicuntur, qui sacrum doctrinam 
commuculaut. 

595 f Aavr)v, gravem or lerribilemfamum he adviseth a man to 
avoid; intending with deserving a good and honest fame 
amongst men, which known to himself impartially and betwixt 
God and him, every worthy man should despise the contrary 



200 THE GEOBGICS OF HESIOD. 

For fame is ill, 'tis light and rais'd like flame ; 

The burthen heavy yet, and hard to cast. 

No fame doth wholly perish, when her blest 

Echo resounds in all the people's cries, 

For she herself is of the Deities. eoo 

conceit of the world ; according to that of Quintilian, writing 
to Seneca, affirming he cared no more what the misjudging 
world vented against him, quum de ventre redditi crepitus. 



THE END OF THE SECOND BOOK OF Yr'OltKS. 





IIESIOD'S BOOK OF DAYS. 

IIE Days that for thy works arc good or ill, 
According to the influence they instill, 
Of Jove with all care learn, and give 
them then, 
For their discharge, in precept to thy men. 

The Thirtieth day of every month is hest, 5 

With diligent inspection to digest 
The next month's works, and part thy household foods ; 
That heing the day when all litigious goods 
Are justly sentene'd by the people's voices. 
And till that day next month give these days' choices, 10 
For they are mark'd out by most-knowing Jove. 



6 'E7rorro/iai, diligenti inspectione digeru, sen secerno et eligo. 
He begins with the last day of the month, which he names 
not a day of any good or bad influence, but being, as it were, 
their term day, in which their business in law was attended ; 
and that not lasting all the day, he adviseth to spend the rest 
of it in disposing the next month's labours. Of the rest he 
makes difference, showing which are unfortunate, and which 
auspicious, and are so far to be observed as natural cause is to 
be given for them ; for it were madness not to ascribe reason 
to Nature, or to make that reason so far above us, that we 
cannot know by it what is daily in use with us, all being for 
our cause created of God; and therefore the diiferences of 
days arise in some part from the aspects, quibus Luna intuetur 
ioUm } nam quudruti asptctus cient pugnum uaiura: cum murbo. 



202 II ESI OPS BOOK OF BAYS. 

First, the First day in which the moon doth move 
With radiance renew'd ; and then the Fourth ; 
The Seventh day next, being first in sacred worth, 
For that day did Latona bring to light 15 

The gold-sword-wearing Sun ; next then the Eighth 
And Ninth are good, being both days that retain 
The moon's prime strength t' instruct the works of men. 
The 'Leventh and Twelfth are likewise both good days ; 
The Twelfth yet far exceeds the 'Leventh's repair, 20 
For that day hangs the spinner in the air, 
And weaves up her web ; so the spinster all 
Her rock then ends, exposing it to sale. 
So Earth's third housewife, the ingenious ant, 
On that day ends her mole-hills' cure of want. 20 

The day herself in their example then 
Tasking her fire, and bounds her length to men. 

The Thirteenth day take care thou sow no seed, 
To plant yet 'tis a day of special speed. 
The Sixteenth day plants set prove fruitless still, 30 
To get a son 'tis good, a daughter ill, 
Nor good to get, nor give in nuptials. 

12 IlpCJrov tin], primum novilunium, which is called sacred, 
nam omnia initia sacra ; the fourth likewise he calls sacred, quia 
eo die prodit a coitu Luna, yrimumque turn conspicitur. 

16 'Oyftodry. The second and fifth day let pass, and sixth, 
ut mediis, he comes to the eighth and ninth, which in their in- 
creasing he terms truly profitable, nam humores ulit crescent iu 
Luna 

19 ^EvfitizaTi). The tenth let pass, the eleventh and twelfth he 
praises diversely, because the moon beholds the sun then in a 
triangular aspect, which is ever called benevolent. 

32 Our' dfj yduov, ueque nttptiit trudendis. The sixteenth day, 
he says, is neither good to get a daughter, nor to wed her, 
quia a ptenilunio cazpitjam humor dejicere ; he says it is good to 
get a son in, nam ex humido semineJkmeUe, ex sicciore puetli nas- 
cuntur. 



HESIO&S BOOK OF DAYS. 203 

Nor in the Sixth day any influence falls 

To fashion her begetting confluence, 

But to geld kids and lambs, and sheep-cotes fence, 35 

It is a day of much benevolence ; 

To get a son it good effects affords, 

And loves to cut one's heart with bitter words ; 

And yet it likes fair speeches, too, and lies, 

And whispering out detractive obloquies. 40 

The Eighth the bellowing bullock lib and goat ; 
The Twelfth the labouring mule. But if of note 
For wisdom, and to make a judge of laws, 
To estimate and arbitrate a cause, 
Thou wouldst a son get, the great Twentieth day 4ft 
Consort thy wife, when full the morn's broad ray 
Shines through thy windows ; for that day is fit 
To form a great and honourable wit. 
The Tenth is likewise good to get a son ; 
Fourteenth a daughter ; then lay hand upon so 

The colt, the mule, and horn-retorted steer, 
And sore-bit mastiff', and their forces rear 
To useful services. Be careful, then, 
The Four-and-twentieth day (the bane of men, 

38 Kepro/xoc, cor alicui scindens. 

41 [Lib— castrate.] 

43 "laropa ^uJra, prudeutem virumjudicem, seu arbitrum, quod 
eos cognaros esse nporteat rei de quu agitur. He calls it the great 
twentieth, because it is the last p.i]vbg fieaouvTog, which is of the 
middle decad of the month ; diebus rou (pOipovrog, or days of 
the dying moon immediately following. 

50 'Verpag. The fourteenth is good to get a daughter, be- 
cause the moon then abounds in humours, and her light is 
more gelid and cold, her heat more temperate 5 and therefore 
he says it is good likewise to tame beasts in, since then, by the 
abundance or humours, they are made more gentle, and con- 
sequently easier tamed. 

54 Terpud. He calls this day so baneful, because of the op- 



204 HESIOD'S BOOK OF DAYS. 

Hurling amongst them) to make safe thy state, 55 

For 'tis a Jay of death insatiate. 

The Fourth day celebrate thy nuptial-feast, 

All birds observ'd that fit a bridal best. 

All Fifth days to effect affairs in fly, 

Being all of harsh and horrid quality ; 60 

For then all vengeful spirits walk their round, 

And haunt men like their handmaids, to confound 

Their faithless peace, whose plague Contention got. 

The Seventeenth day what Ceres did allot 

Thy barns in harvest (since then view'd with care) 65 

Upon a smooth floor let the vinnoware 

Dight and expose to the opposed gale ; 

Then let thy forest-feller cut thee all 

Thy chamber fuel, and the numerous parts 

Of naval timber apt for shipwrights' arts. 70 

The Four-and- twentieth day begin to close 

Thy ships of leak. The Ninth day never blows 

Least ill at all on men. The Nineteenth day 

Yields (after noon yet) a more gentle ray, 

Auspicious both to plant, and generate 75 

position of sun and the moon, and the time then being, that is, 
between the old and new moon, are hurtful for bodies'; such as 
labour with choleric diseases, most languish then ; those with 
phlegmatic, contrary. 

5U ntfnrrai:. He warns men to 11 y all fifth days, that is 
the fifth, the fifteenth, and the five-and-twentieth, because all 
vengeful spirits he affirms then to be most busy with men. 

64 The seventeenth day he thinketh besi to winnow, or dight 
corn, a plenilunio, because about that time winds are stirred up 
and the air is drier. 

&i [ Vinnoware — winnower.] 

72 [Ipwriori} tlvag, prima nova. That is from the beginning 
of the month, he calls harmless, propter geminum aspecimn, cum 
*ol abeat a sign is. 



HESIOD'S BOOK OF DAYS. 205 

Both sons and daughters ; ill to no estate. 

But the Thrice-Nine day's goodness few men know, 

Being hest day of the whole month to make flow 

Both wine and corn-tuns, and to curb the force 

Of mules and oxen and the swift-hoov'd horse ; so 

And then the well-built ship launch. But few men 

Know truth in anything, or where or when 

To do, or order, what they must do, needs, 

Days differencing with no more care than deeds. 

The Twice-Seventh day for sacred worth exceeds. 65 

But few men when the Twentieth day is past, 

Which is the best day (while the morn doth last 

In her increasing power, though after noon 

Her grace grows faint) approve or end that moon 

With any care ; man's life most priz'd is least, 90 

Though lengthless spent as endless, fowl and beast 

Far passing it for date. For all the store 

Of years man boasts, the prating crow hath more 

By thrice three lives ; the long-liv'd stag four parts 

Exceeds the crow's time ; the raven's age the hart's 95 

Triples in durance ; all the raven's long date 

The phoenix ninefold doth reduplicate ; 

Yet Nymphs (the blest Seed of the Thunderer) 

Ten lives outlast the phoenix. - But prefer 



76 Proverb, nvllus dies onntino malus. 

81 Uuupoi. He says few observe these differences of days, 
and as few know or make any difference betwixt one day and 
another. 

b9 He says few approve those days, because these cause most 
change of tempests and men's bodies in the beginning of the 
last quarter. 

90 All this, and the lives of fowls, is cited out of this author 
by Plutarch, not being extant in the common copy. 



206 HESIOD'S BOOK OF DAYS. 

Good life to long life ; and observe these days 100 

That must direct it, being to all men's ways 
Of excellent conduct ; all the rest but sounds 
That follow falls, mere vain and have no grounds; 
But one doth one day praise, another other, 
Few knowing the truth. This day becomes a mother, 
But. be man still one, liw 

That man a happy angel waits upon, 
Makes rich and blessed, that through all these days 
Is knowingly eupfoyM : in all his ways 

: him and the God?) goes still unblam'd : no 
All their forewarning- and suggestions fram'd 
To their obedience, being directly view'd ; 
All good endeavour'd and all ill eschew'd. 

•-• A< C£ n'tv ri:.- at. e: ha quidtm diet h wrimilms ntal wtmgm 

commndo. The epilogue ot" the teacher ; in all days is to be 
dered what religion commands, and then what riseth out 

of natural CaUitri. 



tut: e>;d of hlsiod s works axi days. 



MUStEUS. 



^7 



9 



THE 

D IVINE 

POEM OF 
MUS^US. 



Firji of all Bookes. 



TRANSLATED 

According to the Ori- 

ginall 



By Geo : Chapman. 



LONDON 

^ Printed by Ifaac 
laggard. 1616. 




TO THE MOST GENERALLY INGENIOUS, AND 

OUR ONLY LEARNED ARCHITECT, MY 

EXCEEDING GOOD FRIEND, 

INIGO JONES ESQUIRE, 

SURVEYOR OF HIS MAJESTY'S WORKS. 

NCIENT Poesy, and ancient Architec- 
ture, requiring to their excellence a like 
creating and proportionable rapture, and 
being alike overtopt by the monstrous 
Babels of our modern barbarism, their unjust ob- 
scurity letting no glance of their truth and dignity 
appear but to passing few, to passing few is then- 
least apparance to be presented. Yourself then being 
a chief of that few by whom both are apprehended, 
and their beams worthily measured and valued, this 
little light of the one I could not but object, and pub- 
lish to your choice apprehension ; especially for your 
most ingenuous love to all works in which the ancient 
Greek Souls have appeared to you. jSTo less esteeming 
this worth the presenting to any Greatest, for the small- 
ness of the work, than the Author himself hath been 
held therefore of the less estimation ; having obtained 
as much preservation and honor as the greatest of others ; 



212 

the smallness being supplied with so greatly-excellent 
invention and elocution. Nor lacks even the most 
youngly-enamoured affection it contains a temper grave 
enough to become both the sight and acceptance of the 
Gravest. And therefore, howsoever the mistaking world 
takes it (whose left hand ever received what I gave with 
my right) if you freely and nobly entertain it, I obtain 
my end ; your judicious love ? s continuance being my 
only object. To which I at all parts commend 

Your ancient poor friend, 

George Chapman. 




TO THE COMMUNE EEADER. 




HEX you see Leander and Hero, the 
subjects of this Pamphlet, I persuade 
myself jour prejudice will increase to the 
contempt of it; either headlong pre- 
supposing it all one, or at no part matchable, with that 
partly excellent Poem of Maister Marloe's. For your 
all one, the Works are in nothing alike; a different 
character being held through both the style, matter, 
and invention. For the match of it, let but your eyes 
be matches, and it will in many parts overmatch it. 
In the Original, it being by all most learned the in- 
comparable Love-Poem of the world. And I would 
be something sorry you could justly tax me with doing 
it any wrong in our English ; though perhaps it will 
not so amble under your seisures and censures, as the 
before published. 

Let the great comprehenders and unable utterers 
of the Greek elocution in other language drop under 
their unloadings, how humbly soever they please, and 
the rather disclaim their own strength, that my weak- 
ness may seem the more presumptuous ; it can impose 
no scruple the more burthen on my shoulders, that I 
will feel ; unless Reason chance to join arbiter with 



214 

Will, and appear to me ; to whom I am ever prostrately 
subject. And if envious Misconstruction could once 
leave tyrannizing over my infortunate Innocence, both 
the Charity it argued would render them that use it 
the more Christian, and me industrious, to hale out of 
them the discharge of their own duties. 





OF MUS^US. 

OUT OF THE WORTHY D. GAGER's COLLECTIONS. 

USJEUS was a renowned Greek Poet,born 

at Athens, the son of Eumolpus. He 

A j^E^S] Ei lived in the time of Orpheus, and is said 

•^3^5 ^g^l to be one of them that went the Famous 

Voyage to Colchos for the Golden Fleece. He wrote 

of the Gods' Genealogy before any other ; and invented 

the Sphere. Whose opinion was, that all things were 

made of one Matter, and resolved into one again. Of 

whose works only this one Poem of Hero and Le- 

ander is extant. Of himself, in his Sixth Book of JEne. 

Virgil makes memorable mention, where in Elysium he 

makes Sibylla speak this of him — 

Musseum ante omnes ; medium nam plurima turba 
Hunc habet, atque humeris extantem suspicit altis. 

He was born in Falerum, a town in the middle of 
Tuscia, or the famous country of Tuscany in Italy, 
called also Hetruria. 




216 



OF ABYDUS AND SESTUS. 

, BYDUS and Sestus were two ancient Towns; 
one in Europe, another in Asia ; East and 
West, opposite ; on both the shores of the 
Hellespont. Their names are extant in Maps to this 
day. But in their places are two Castles built, which 
the Turks call Bogazossas, that is, Castles situate by the 
sea-side. Seamen now call the place where Sestus stood 
Maliclo. It was likewise called Possidonium. But 
Abydus is called Auco. They are both renowned in 
all writers for nothing so much as the Love of Leander 
and Hero. 



OF THE HELLESPONT. 

HELLESPONT, the straits of the two seas, 
Propontis and Egeum, running betwixt Aby- 
dus and Sestus. Over which Xerxes built 
a bridge, and joined these two towns together, convey- 
ing over his army of seven hundred thousand men. It 
is now called by some The Straits of Gallipolis ; but 
by Frenchmen, Flemings, and others, The Arm of 
Saint George, It had his name Hellespont, because 
Helle the daughter oiAihamas K. of Thebes was drowned 
in it. And therefore of one it is called The Virgin- 
Icilling Sea ; of another The Virgin- Sea. It is but 
seven Italian furlongs broad, which is one of our miles 
lacking a furlong. 





MUS^US, 
OF HERO AND LEANDER. 

ODDESS, relate the witness-bearing light 
Of Loves, that would not bear a human 

sight ; 
The Sea-man that transported marriages, 
Shipt in the night, his bosom plowing th' seas ; 
The love-joys that in gloomy clouds did fly 5 

The clear beams of th' immortal Morning's eye ; 
Abydus and fair Sestus, where I hear 
The night -hid Nuptials of young Hero were ; 
Leander's swimming to her ; and a Light, 
A Light that was administress of sight 10 

To cloudy Venus, and did serve a t' address 
Night-wedding Hero's nuptial offices ; 
A Light that took the very form of Love ; 
Which had been justice in ethereal Jove, 
When the nocturnal duty had been done, is 

T' advance amongst the consort of the Sun, 
And call the b Star that Nuptial Loves did guide, 
And to the Bridegroom gave and grac'd the Bride, 
Because it was c companion to the death 
Of Loves, d whose kind cares cost their dearest breath; 20 
And that e fame -freighted ship from ship wrack kept 



218 MUSJEUS, OF 

That such sweet nuptials brought they never slept, 

Till air f was with a bitter flood inflate, 

That bore their firm loves as infixt a hate. 

But, Goddess, forth, and both one issue sing, 25 

The Light extinct, Leander perishing. 

Two towns there were, that with one sea were wall'd, 
Built near, and opposite ; this Sestus call'd, 
Abjdus that ; the Love his bow bent high, 
And at both Cities let one arrow fly, so 

That two (a Virgin and a Youth) inflam'd : 
The youth was sweetly-grac'd Leander nam'd, 
The virgin Hero ; Sestus she renowns, 
Abydus he, in birth ; of both which towns 
Both were the beauty- circled stars ; and both 35 

Grae'd with like looks, as with one love and troth. 

If that way lie thy course, seek for my sake 
A Tower, that Sestian Hero once did make 
Her watch-tower, and a torch stood holding there, 
By which Leander his sea-course did steer. 40 

Seek, likewise, of Abydus ancient tow'rs, 
The roaring sea lamenting to these hours 
Leander' s Love and Death. But say, how came 
He (at Abydus born) to feel the flame 
Of Hero's love at Sestus, and to bind 45 

In chains of equal fire bright Hero's mind ? 

The graceful Hero, born of gentle blood, 
Was Venus' Priest : and since she understood 
No nuptial language, from her parents she 
Dwelt in a tow'r that over-look'd the sea. 50 

For shamefastness and chastity, she reign'd 
Another Goddess ; nor was ever train'd 

29 The Love — Cupid. Perhaps we should read then Love. 



HERO AND LEAN DEE. 210 

In women'? companies ; nor learn'd to tread 

A graceful dance, to which such years are bred. 

The envious spites of women she did fly, 55 

("Women for beauty their own sex envy) 

All her devotion was to Venus done, 

And to his heavenly Mother her great Son 

Would reconcile with sacrifices ever, 

And ever trembled at his flaming quiver. to 

Yet scap'd not so his fiery shafts her breast ; 

For now the popular Yenerean Feast. 

Which to Adonis, and great Cvpria's State, 

The Sestians yearly ns'd to celebrate, 

Was come ; and to that holy day came all 60 

That in the bordering isles the sea did wall. 

To it in flocks they flew ; from Cyprus these, 

Environed with the rough Carpathian seas : 

These from Hsemonia ; nor remain'd a man 

Of all the towns in th' isles Cytherean ; 70 

Xot one was left, that us'd to dance upon 

The tops of odoriferous Libanon ; 

Xot one of Phrygia, not one of all 

The neighbours seated near the Festival ; 

Xor one of opposite Abydus* shore ; 

None of all these, that virgins' favours wore, 

Were absent : all such fill the flowing way, 

When Fame proclaims a solemn holy day, 

Xot bent so much to offer holy flames, 

As to the beauties of assembled dames. so 

The virgin Hero enter'd th' holy place, 
And graceful beams cast round about her face, 
Like to the bright orb of the rising Moon. 
The top-spheres of her snowy cheeks puts on 



220 MUS^JUS, OF 

A glowing redness, like the two-hued rose 8f 

Her odorous bud beginning to disclose. 

Yon would have said, in all her lineaments 

A meadow full of roses she presents. 

All over her she g blush' d; which (putting on 

Her white robe, reaching to her ankles) shone 90 

(While she in passing did her feet dispose) 

As she had wholly been a moving rose. 

Graces in numbers from her parts did flow. 

The Ancients therefore (since they did not know 

Hero's unbounded beauties) falsely feign'd 95 

Only three Graces ; for, when Hero strain' d 

Into a smile her priestly modesty, 

A hundred Graces grew from either eye. 

A fit one, sure, the Cyprian Goddess found 

To be her ministress ; and so highly crown'd 100 

With worth her grace was, past all other dames, 

That, of a priest made to the Queen of Flames, 

A new Queen of them she in all eyes shin'd ; 

And did so undermine each tender mind 

Of all the young men ; and there was not one 105 

But wish'd fair Hero was his wife, or none. 

Nor could she stir about the well-built Fane, 

This way or that, but every way she wan 

A following mind in all men ; which their eyes, 

Lighted with all their inmost faculties, 110 

Clearly confirm'd ; and one (admiring) said, 

" All Sparta I have travell'd, and survey'd 

The City Lacedsemon, where we hear 

All Beauties' labors and contentions were, 

A woman, yet, so wise and delicate lis 

I never saw. It may be Venus gat 



HERO AND LEANDER. 221 

One of the younger Graces to supply 

The place of priest-hood to her Deity. 

Ev'n tir'd I am with sight, yet doth not find 

A satisfaction hy my sight my mind. 120 

could I once ascend sweet Hero's bed, 
Let me be straight found in her bosom dead ! 

1 would not wish to be in heaven a God, 
Were Hero here my wife. But, if forbod 

To lay profane hands on thy holy priest, 125 

O Venus, with another such assist 

My nuptial longings." Thus pray'd all that spake : 

The rest their wounds hid, and in frenzies brake ; 

Her beauty's fire, being so suppress'd, so rag'd. 

But thou, Leander, more than all engag'd, 130 

VTouldst not, when thou hadst view'd th' amazing Maid, 

Waste with close stings, and seek no open aid, 

But, with the flaming arrows of her eyes 

Wounded unwares, thou wouldst in sacrifice 

Vent th' inflammation thy burnt blood did prove, 135 

Or live with sacred med'cine of her love. 

But now the love-brand in his eye-beanis burn'd. 
And with unconquer'd fire his heart was turn'd 
Into a coal ; together wrought the flame. 
The virtuous beaut}' of a spotless dame 1-10 

Sharper to men is than the swiftest shaft ; 
His eye the way by which his heart is caught, 
And, from the stroke his eye sustains, the wound 
Opens within, and doth his entrails sound. 
Amaze then took him, Impudence and Shame 145 

Made earthquakes in him with their frost and flame. 
His heart betwixt them toss'd, till Beverence 
Took all these prisoners in him ; and from thence 



323 UUSJEUS, OF 

Her matchless beauty, with astonishment, 

Increased his bands ; till aguish Love, that lent 160 

Shame and Observance, licens'd their remove ; 

And, wisely liking impudence in love, 

Silent he went, and stood against the Maid, 

And in side glances faintly he convey'd 

His crafty eyes about her ; with dumb shows ir»o 

Tempting her mind to error. And now grows 

She to conceive his subtle flame, and joy'd 

Since he was graceful. Then herself employed 

Her womanish cunning, taming from him quite 

Her lovely count'nance ; giving yet some light. 160 

Even by her dark signs, of her kindling fire, 

With up and down-looks whetting his desire. 

He joy'd at heart to see Love's seDse in her. 

And no contempt of what he did prefer. 

And while he wish'd unseen to urge the rest, les 

The day shrunk down her beams to lowest West. 

And East; h the Even-Star took vantage of her shade. 

Then boldly he his kind approaches made, 

And as he saw the russet clouds increase, 

He strain'd her rosy hand, and held his peace, 170 

But sigh'd as silence had his bosom broke. 

"When she, as silent, put on anger's cloke, 

And drew her hand back. He, discerning well 

Her 1 would and would not, to her boldlier fell ; 

And her elaborate robe, with much cost wrought, 178 

About her waist embracing, on he brought 

His love to th' in-parts of the reverend Fane ; 

She (as her love-sparks more and more did wane ) 

Went slowly on, and, with a woman's words 

Threat'ning Leander, thus his boldness bords : 180 



HERO AND LEANDEB. 223 

" Why Stranger, are you k mad? Ill-fated man, 
"Why hale you thus a virgin Sestian ? 
Keep on your way. Let go, fear to offend 
The noblesse of my birth-right's either friend. 
It ill becomes you to solicit thus 1S5 

The priest of Venus. Hopeless, dangerous, 
The ] barr'd up way is to a virgin's bed." 
Thus, for the maiden form, she menaced. 
But he well-knew, that when these female m mines 
Break out in fury, they are certain signs 190 

Of their persuasions. Women's threats once shown, 
Shows in it only all you wish your own. 
And therefore of the rubi-colour'd maid 
The odorous neck he with a kiss assay 'd, 
And, stricken with the sting of love, he pray'd : 105 

" Dear Yenus, next to Venus you must go ; 
And next Minerva, trace Minerva too ; 
Your like with earthy dames no light can show ; 
To Jove's Great Daughters I must liken you. 
Blest was thy great begetter ; blest was she 200 

Whose womb did bear thee ; but most blessedly 
The womb itself fare that thy throes did prove. 
O ! hear my prayer ! Pity the need of Love. 
As priest of Yenus, practise Venus' rites. 
Come, and instruct me in her bed's-delights. 205 

It fits not you, a virgin, to vow aids 
To Venus' service ; Yenus loves no maids. 
If Venus' institutions you prefer, 
And faithful ceremonies vow to her, 
Xuptials and beds they be. If her love binds, 210 

Love Love's sweet laws, that soften human minds. 

184 My birth-right's either friend — i. e. both my parents. 



224 AIUSJIUS, OF 

Make me your servant ; husband, if you pleas'd : 

Whom Cupid with his burning shafts has seiz'd, 

And hunted to you, as swift Hermes drave 

With his gold-rod Jove's bold son to be slave 21s 

To Lydia's sovereign Virgin ; but for me, 

Venus insulting forc'd my feet to thee, 

I was not guided by wise Mercury. 

Virgin, you know, when Atalanta fled, 

Out of Arcadia, kind Melanion's bed, 220 

Affecting virgin-life, your angry Queen. 

Whom first she us'd with a malignant spleen, 

At last possest him of her complete heart. 

And you. dear love, because I would avert 

Your Goddess' anger, I would fain persuade." 225 

With these n love -luring words conformed he made 

The maid recusant to his blood's desire, 

And set her soft mind on an erring fire. 

Dumb she was strook ; and down to earth she threw 

Her rosy eyes, hid in vermilion hue, 220 

Made red with shame. Oft with her foot she rac'd 

Earth's upper part ; and oft (as quite ungrac'd) 

About her shoulders gather'd up her weed. 

All these fore -tokens are that men should speed. 

Of a persuaded virgin, to her bed 835 

Promise is most given when the least is said. 

And now she took in Love's sweet-bitter sting, 

Burn'd in a fire that cool'd her surfeiting. 

Her beauties likewise strook her friend amaz'd ; 

For, while her eyes fixt on the pavement gaz'd, 240 

Love on Leander's looks shew'd fury seiz'd. 

Never enough his greedy eyes were pleas'd 

To view the fair gloss of her tender neck. 



HERO AXD LEAXDER. 225 

At last this voice past, and out did break 
A ruddy moisture from her bashful eyes : 345 

•■ Stranger, perhaps thy words might exercise 
Motion in flints, as well as my soft breast. I 

"Who taught thee words, p that err from East to West 
In their wild liberty ? O woe is me ! 
To this my native soil who guided thee ? 250 

All thou hast said is vain ; for how canst thou 
(Xot to be trusted ; one I do not know) 
Hope co excite in me a mixed love ? 
Tis clear, that Law by no means will approve 
Nuptials with us ; for thou canst never gain 255 

My parents' graces. If thou wouldst remain 
Close on my shore, as outcast from thine own, 
Yenus will be in darkest corners known. 
Man's tongue is loose to scandal ; loose acts done 
In surest secret, in the open sun 260 

And every market place will burn thine ears. 
But say, What name sustainst thou ? What soil bears 
Xaine of thy coimtry ? Mine I cannot hide. 
My far -spread name is Hero ; I abide 
Hous'd in an all-seen tow'r, whose tops q touch heaven, 
Built on a steep shore, that to sea is driven 266 

Before the City Sestus : one sole maid 
Attending. And this irksome life is laid 
By my austere friends' wills on one so young ; 
Xo like-year d virgins near, no youthful throng, 270 
To meet in some delights, dances, or so : 
But day and night the windy sea doth throw 
Wild miu-muring cuffs about our deaf ned ears." 
This said, her white robe hid her cheeks like spheres. 
And then (with shame affected, since she us'd 275 

Q 



226 MUSJBUS, OF 

Words that desir'd youths, and her friends accus'd) 

She blanr d herself for them, and them for her. 

Mean space Leander felt Love's arrow err 

Thro* all his thoughts ; devising how he might 

Encounter Love, that dar'd him so to fight. 2so 

Mind-changing Love wounds men and cures again. 

Those mortals over whom he lists to reign, 

Th' All-tamer stoops to, in advising how 

They may with some ease bear the yoke, his bow. 

So our Leander, whom he hurt, he heal'd. 285 

Who having long his hidden fire conceal'd, 

And vex'd with thoughts he thirsted to impart, 

His stay he quitted with this quickest art : 

" Virgin, for thy love I will swim a wave 

That ships denies ; and though with fire it rave, 290 

In way to thy bed, all the seas in one 

I would despise ; the Hellespont were none. 

All nights to swim to one r sweet bed with thee 

Were nothing, if when Love had landed me, 

All hid in weeds and in Venerean foam, 295 

I brought withal bright Hero's husband home. 

Xot far from hence, and just against thy town, 

Abydus stands, that my birth calls mine own. 

Hold but a torch then in thy s heaven-high tow'r. 

(Which I beholding, to that starry pow'r 300 

May plow the dark seas, as the Ship of Love) 

I will not care to see Bootes move 

Down to the sea, nor sharp Orion trail 

His never-wet car, but arrive my sail, 

Against my country, at thy pleasing shore. 805 

But (dear) take heed that no ungentle blore 

The torch extinguish, bearing all the light 



HERO AND LEANDER. 227 

By which my life sails, lest I lose thee quite. 

Wouldst thou my name know (as thou dost my house) 

It is Leander, lovely Hero's spouse." 310 

Thus this kind couple their close marriage made, 

And friendship ever to be held in shade 

(Only by witness of one nuptial light) 

Both vow'd ; agreed that Hero every night 

Should hold her torch out ; every night her love 315 

The tedious passage of the seas should prove. 

The whole even of the watchful nuptials spent, 

Against their wills the stern power of constraint 

Enfore'd their parting. Hero to her tow'r ; 

Leander (minding his returning hour) 320 

Took of the turret marks, for fear he fail'd, 

And to well-founded broad Abydus sail'd. 

All night both thirsted for the secret strife 

Of each young-married lovely man and wife ; 

And all day after no desire shot home, 320 

But that the chamber- decking night were come. 

And now Night's sooty clouds clapp'd all sail on, 

Fraught all with sleep ; yet took Leander none, 

But on th' oppos'd shore of the noisefull seas 

The messenger of glitt'ring marriages 330 

Look'd wishly for ; or rather long'd to see 

The witness of their Light to misery, 

Far off discover' d in their covert bed. 

When Hero saw the blackest curtain spred 

That veil'd the dark night, her bright torch she shew'd. 

Whose light no sooner th' eager Lover view'd, 336 

But Love his blood set on as bright a fire ; 

Together burn'd the torch and his desire. 

But hearing of the sea the horrid roar, 



228 MUS^US, OF 

With which the tender air the mad waves tore, 340 

At first he trembled ; but at last he rear'd 

High as the storm his spirit, and thus cheer'd 

(Using these words to it) his resolute mind : 

" Love dreadful is; the Sea with nought inclin'd; 

But Sea is water, outward all his ire ; 345 

When Love lights his fear with an inward fire. 

Take fire, my heart, fear nought that flits and raves, 

Be Love himself to me, despise these waves. 

Art thou to know that Venus' birth was here ? 

Commands the sea, and all that grieves us there ?" 350 

This said, his fair limbs of his weed he stript ; 

Which, at his head with both hands bound, he shipt, 

Leapt from the shore, and cast into the sea 

His lovely body ; thrusting all his way 

Up to the torch, that still he thought did call ; 355 

He oars, he steerer, he the ship and all. 

Hero advanc'd upon a tow'r so high, 

As soon would lose on it the fixedst eye ; 

And, like her Goddess Star, with her light shining, 

The winds, that always (as at her repining) 360 

Would blast her pleasures, with her veil she checkt, 

And from their envies did her torch protect. 

And this she never left, till she had brought 

Leander to the havenful shore he sought. 

When down she ran, and up she lighted then, 365 

To her tow'r's top, the weariest of men. 

First at the gates (without a syllable us'd) 

She hugg'd her panting husband, all diffus'd 

With foamy drops still stilling from his hair. 

Then brought she him into the inmost fair 370 

Of all, her virgin-chamber, that (at best) 



HERO AND LEANDER. 229 

Was with her beauties ten times better drest. 

His body then she cleans'd ; his body oil'd 

With rosy odours, and his bosom (soil'd 

With the unsavoury sea) she render 'd sweet. 375 

Then, in the high-made bed (ev'n panting yet) 

Herself she pour'd about her husband's breast, 

And these words utter'd : " With too much unrest, 

O husband, you have bought this little peace ! 

Husband ! No other man hath paid th' increase aso 

Of that huge sum of pains you took for me. 

And yet I know, it is enough for thee 

To suffer for my love the fishy savours 

The working sea breaths. Come lay all thy labors 

On my all-thankful bosom." All this said, 385 

He straight ungirdled her ; and both parts paid 

To Venus what her gentle statutes bound. 

Here weddings were, but not a musical sound ; 

Here bed-rites offer'd, but no hymns of praise, 

Nor poet sacred wedlock's worth did raise. 390 

No torches gilt the honor'd nuptial bed, 

Nor any youths much-moving dances led. 

No father, nor no reverend mother, sung 

Hymen, Hymen, blessing loves so young. 

But when the consummating hours had crown'd 395 

The down-right nuptials, a calm bed was found ; 

Silence the room fixt ; Darkness deckt the bride ; 

But hymns and such rites far were laid aside. 

Night was sole gracer of this nuptial house ; 

Cheerful Aurora never saw the spouse 400 

In any beds that were too broadly known, 

Away he fled still to his region, 

And breath' d insatiate of the absent Sun. 



230 MUSJRUS, OF 

Hero kept all this from her parents still, 
Her priestly weed was large, and would not fill, 40.5 
A maid bj day she was, a wife by night ; 
Which Loth so lov'd they wish'd it never light. 
And thus both, hiding the strong need of love, 
In Venus' secret sphere rejoic'd to move. 
But soon their joy died ; and that still-toss'd state 410 
Of their stol'n nuptials drew but little date. 
For when the frosty Winter kept his justs, 
Housing together all the horrid gusts 
That from the ever-whirling pits arise, 
And those weak deeps that drive up to the skies, 415 
Against the drench' d foundations making knock 
Their curled foreheads ; then with many a shock 
The winds and seas met, made the storms aloud 
Beat all the rough sea with a pitchy cloud. 
And then the black bark, buffeted with gales, 420 

Earth checks so rudely that in two it falls ; 
The seaman flying winter's faithless sea. 
Yet, brave Leander, all this bent at thee 
Could not compell in thee one fit of fear ; 
But when the cruel faithless messenger 425 

(The tow'r) appeared and shew'd th' accustomed light, 
It stung thee on, secure of all the spite 
The raging sea spit. But since Winter came, 
Unhappy Hero should have cool'd her flame, 
And He without Leander, no more lighting 430 

Her short -liv'd bed-star ; but strange Fate exciting 
As well as Love, and both their pow'rs conibin'd 
Enticing her, in her hand never shin'd 
The fatal Love-torch, but this one hour, more. 
Night came. And now the Sea against the shore 430 



HERO AND LEAN DEB. 231 

Muster'd her winds up ; from whose wint'ry jaws 

The j belch' d their rude breaths out in bitt'rest flaws. 

In midst of which Leander, with the pride 

Of his dear hope to bord his matchless bride, 

Up on the rough back of the high sea leaps ; 440 

And then waves thrust up waves ; the watry heaps 

Tumbled together ; sea and sky were mixt ; 

The fighting Winds the frame of Earth unfixt ; 

Zephyr and Eurus flew in either' s face, 

Notus and Boreas wrastler-like embrace, 445 

And toss each other with their bristled backs. 

Inevitable were the horrid cracks 

The shaken Sea gave ; ruthful were the wracks 

Leander suffer'd in the savage gale 

Th' inexorable whirlpits did exhale. 450 

Often he pray'd to Venus born of seas, 

Neptune their King ; and Boreas, that t' would please 

His Godhead, for the Nymph Atthea's sake, 

Not to forget the like stealth he did make 

For her dear love, touch't then with his sad state. 455 

But none would help him ; Love compels not Fate. 

Every way toss'd with waves and Air's rude breath 

Justling together, he was crush' d to death. 

No more his youthful force his feet commands, 

Unmov'd lay now his late all-moving hands. 460 

His throat was turn'd free channel to the flood, 

And drink went down that did him far from good. 

No more the false light for the curst wind burn'd, 

That of Leander ever-to-be-mourn'd 

Blew out the love and soul. When Hero still 465 

Had watchful eyes, and a most constant will 

To guide the voyage ; and the morning shin'd, 



232 MUSjEUS, OF HERO AND LEAXDER. 

Yet not by her light she her love could find. 

She stood distract with miserable woes, 

And round about the sea's broad shoulders throws 470 

Her eye. to second the extinguish'd light ; 

And tried if any way her husband's sight 

Erring in any part she could descry. 

When at her turret's foot she saw him lie 

Mangl'd with rocks, and all-embrued, she tore 475 

About her breast the curious weed she wore ; 

And with a shriek from off her turret's height 

Cast her fair body headlong, that fell right 

On her dead husband, spent with him her breath ; 

And each won other in the worst of death. 480 




ANNOTATIONS UPON THIS POEM OP 
MTJ&EUS. 

Ver. 11. a rcLfioeroXog signifies one qui nuptias apparat vel 
instruit. 

17. ^^VfKpoffToXov dcrrpov kpwrcjv. Nv/j0oot6\oc est qui 
sponsam sponso adducit seu conciliat. 

19. c 2vv8piQog, socius in aliquo opere. 

20. d 'Epix)fiaveojv oSvvaujv. 'Epujf.iavrjQ signifies perdite 
amans, and therefore I enlarge the verbal translation. 

21. e 'AyyeXLr]V 8* tyvXaZev aKoifjLrjTUJV, k. t. X. 'AyyeXia, 
besides what is translated in the Latin res est nuntiata, item 
mandatum a nuntio perlatum, item fama, and therefore I trans- 
late it fame-freighted ship, because Leander calls himself oXkoq 
tpwTog, which is translated navis amoris, though 6X/e6c properly 
signifies sulcus, or tract us uavis, vel terpentis, vel (Etherea sagittce, fyc. 

23. f 'ExQpbv ar\rr\v. "ExOog, "ExOpa, and 'E^^poc are of 
one signification, or have their deduction one ; and seem to be 
deduced dirb tov exs^Oai, I. hczrere. Ut sit odium quod animo 
injixum haret. Eor odium is by Cicero defined ira inveterata. 
I have therefore translated it according to this deduction, be- 
cause it expresses better 5 and taking the wind for the fate of 
the wind 5 which conceived and appointed before, makes it as 
inveterate or infixed. 

89. SXpoitjP yap fjieXsujv epvOaivero, crlore enim membrorum 
rubebat. A most excellent hyperbole, being to be understood 
she blushed all over her. Or, then follows another elegancy, 
as strange and hard to conceive. The mere verbal translation 
of the Latin being in the sense either imperfect, or utterly in- 



234 AXXOTATIOXS OX THIS 

elegant, which I must yet leave to your judgment, for your 
own satisfaction. The words are, — 

~S icrcrofjLEvtiQ £e 
Kal po?a XevKOXiTLovog vwb c<pvpa XdfnrEro kovojjc. 
Euniis vero 
Etiam roscE Candida indutic tunica sub talis splendebant puelle. 
To understand which, that her white weed was all underlined 
with roses, and that they shined out of it as she went, is passing 
poor and absurd : and as gross to have her stuck all over with 
roses. And therefore to make the sense answerable in heighth 
and elegancy to the former, she seemed (blushiDg all over her 
white robe, even below her ankles as she went) a moving rose, 
as having the blush of many roses about her. 

167. h 'Avs(paivel3a9vcn;iOQE<J7rEpoga(Tri)p. Apparuit umbrosa 
Hesperus stella. E regione is before ; which I English " And 
east ; the Even-star took vantage of her shade, viz. of the evening 
shade, which is the cause that stars appear. 

174. iXaXitypova vevfiara k. instabilis nutuspuellce. I Eng- 
lish her would and would not. Xa\/0pujr, 6 x^Xic rac ejpsvac, 
signifying cui mens laiata est et enerva ; and of extremity therein 
amens, demens. XaXitypovtw, sum x&Xi(ppm>. 

181. k Demens sum — she calls him cvcpope, which signifies 
cui difficile fatum obtingit ; according to which I English it, «- 
felix (being the word in the Latin) not expressing so particularly. 
because the unhappy in our language hath divers understand- 
ings, as waggish or subtle, &;c. And the other well expressing 
an ill abodement in Hero of his ill or hard fate ; imagining 
straight the strange and sudden alteration in her to be fatal. 

187. ] A'tKTpov apifxavov. Hap9ariKfje going before, it is 
Latined, virginis ad ledum difficile est ire; but dprixavoe sig- 
nifies nullis machinu expugnabil'u: the way unto a virgin's bed 
is utterly-barred. 

189. m Kv7rpiSlu)v odpiov avrdyyeXoi ticriv aTreiXai. Vene- 
rearum consuetudinum per se nuntiiz sunt miner ; exceeding ele- 
gant. AvrayyeXog signifying qui sibi nuntius est. id est. qui 
sine alior m opera sua ipse nuntiat ; according to which I have 
Englished it. "Oapte, lusus venerei. ? A7ru\ai also, which sig- 
nifies mince , having a reciprocal signification in our tongue, 
being Englished mines. Mines, as it is privileged amongst us, 
being English, signifying mines made under the earth. I 
have passed it with that word, being fit for this place in that 
understanding. 



POEM OF MUSJEUS. 235 

226. n 'EpwroTOKOiGi fivQoig, Iqljtotokoq crap%, corpus amorem 
pariens et alticiens, according to which I have turned it. 

243. 0< A7ra\6xpoov av%kva. ' A7ra\6xpoog signifies qui 
tenerd el delicatd est cute ; tenerum therefore not enough express- 
ing, I have enlarged the expression as in his place. 

248. P Ilo\v7r\avtu)v Itt'ewv is turned variorum verborum* 
TToXvirXavriQ signifying multivagus, erroueus, or errorum plenus* 
intending that sort of error that is in the planets ; of whose 
wandering they are called 7rXavrJTeg aarepeg, sidera errant ia. 
So that Hero taxed him for so bold a liberty in words, as erred 
toto cozlo from what was fit, or became the youth of one so 
graceful ; which made her break into the admiring exclama- 
tion, that one so young and gracious should put on so experi- 
enced and licentious a boldness, as in that holy temple encou- 
raged him to make love to her. 

265. <l Aofiog otpavofirjKrjg. It is translated domo altissimd ; 
but because it is a compound, and hath a grace superior to the 
others in his more near and verbal conversion, ovpavofirjKqg 
signifying caelum proceritate tangens, I have so rendered it. 

293. Tt YypoQ aKoirrjg, translated madidus martins, when as 
aKoiTT)Q is taken here for o/io/coiYj/c, signifying uuum et idem 
cubile habens, which is more particular and true. 

299. s 'H\i/3arou crso 7rvpyov, &c. 'fl\ij3aroc signifies jam 
altus aut profundus ut ab ejus accessu aberres, intending the tower 
upon which Hero stood. 



FINIS. 



JUVENAL. 



A JUST REPROOFE 

OF A 

Romane Smell-Feaft : 

BEING THE FIFTH SATYRE OF 

JUVENAL. 

, ._ . . 

Translated by George Chapman. 



Imprinted at London by Tho. Harper 
MDC. XXIX. 




TO THE RIGHT VIRTUOUS AND WORTHILY 

HONOURED GENTLEMAN, 

RICHARD HUBERT, ESQUIRE. 

Sir. 
RE AT works get little regard ; little and 
light are most affected with height ; omne 
leve sursum, grave deorsum, you know; 
for which, and because custom or fashion 
is another nature, and that it is now the fashion to justify 
strange actions, I (utterly against mine own fashion) 
followed the vulgar, and assaid what might be said for 
the justification of a strange action of Xero in burying 
with a solemn funeral one of the cast hairs of his mistress 
Poppea. And not to make little labours altogether un- 
worthy the sight of the great, I say with the great de- 
fender of little labours, In temei labor est, at tenuis nan 
gloria. Howsoever, as seamen seeing the approaches 
of whales, cast out empty vessells, to serve their harm- 
fid pleasures, and divert them from everting their main 
adventure (for in the vast and immane power of any 
thing, nothing is distinguished ; great and precious 
things, basest and vilest, serve alike their wild and un- 
wildy swings) ; so myself, having yet once more some 
worthier work than this oration, and following translation. 



242 

to pass this sea of the land, expose to the land and 
vulgar Leviathan these slight adventures. The rather. 
because the translation containing in two or three in- 
stances a preparation to the justification of my ensuing 
intended* translations, lest some should account them, 
as they have my former conversions in some places, 
licenses, hold ones, and utterly redundant. Though your 
judicial self (as I have heard) hath taken those liberal 
redundances rather as the necessary overflowings of 
Xilus. than rude or harmful torrents swoln with head- 
strong showers. To whose judgement and merit sub- 
mits these, and all his other, services 

George Chapman. 



* It would seem from this that Chapman intended other 
translations. None, however, have been printed. 





TO THE EEADEE. 

ECAUSE, in most opinions of translation, 
a most asinine error hath gotten ear and 
head, that men must attempt it as a mas- 
tery in rendering any original into other 
language, to do it in as few words, and the like order, 
I thought it not amiss in this poor portion of translation 
to pick out, like the rotten out of apples if you please 
so to repute it, a poor instance or two that endeavour to 
demonstrate a right in the contrary ; and the rather I 
take this course, ocularily to present you with example 
of what I esteem fit to save the liberty and dialect of 
mine own language, because there are many valetudi- 
naries that never know the goodness of their stomach 
till they see meat afore them. 

Where, therefore, the most worthy Satirist describes 
the differences of pages that attend the lord and the 
guests at the table, and expresses the disdain of the lord's 
page to attend his guest, bespeaks for his pride thus : — 

sed forma sed aetas 

Digna supercilio. 

Which I take out with this bold one : And to say truth, 

his form and prime beside may well allow him some few 

grains of pride. To speak truth is too much, you say ; 

I confess it in policy, but not in force and honest poesy. 



244 

In the other, the words are utterly altered. It should be 
so, to avoid verbal servitude; but the sense I might 
wish my betters could render no worse. It follows, 
where he sets down the difference betwixt the lord's 
bread and the guests' ; where he hath played upon the 
coarseness and mustiness of the guests' pantry, he dif- 
ferences his lord's thus : — 

Sed tener et niveus, mollique siligine factus, 
Servatur domino. 

Which I thus :— 

But for his bread, the pride of appetite, 
Tenderly soft, incomparably white, 
The first flow'r of fine meal subdu'd in paste, 
That's a peculiar for my lord's own taste. 

O this, you will say, is a bold one; which I am too 
bashful to answer otherwise than thus, that here the 
purest bread affects a full description ; which I amplify- 
ing no more than is needful for the full facture of it, 
if I be overflowing, my author is arid ; but who would 
not greedily here have fallen upon snowy, it lying so 
fair for him ? put soft faithfully in his proper place ; and 
would ever have dreamed of subdued in paste, because 
it was not put in his mouth ? And I hope it will seem 
no over-broad bold one, to enter where the purest bread 
out of industry should make his expected apparance. 
A number more out of this of no number I could in- 
stance, that would trouble men made of greatest number 
to imitate. But all mastery hath his end, to get great 
men to commend. It is the outward not the inward 
virtue that prevails. The candlestick more than the 
candle is the learning with which blind Fortune useth 
to prefer her favourites. And who, but the spawns 
of candlesticks (men of most lucubration for name) win 



245 

the day from such dormice as wake sleeping ; and rest 
only in those unprofitable and abhorred knowledges, that 
no man either praises or acknowledges. 

Me dulcis saturet quies. Leni perfruar ocio. 
Ignotus omnibus. Cognitus egomet mihi. 

Quite opposite to your admired and known learned man : 
Qui notus nimis omnibus, Ignotus moritur sibi. And so 
shall know nothing either in life or death when every 
truly learned man's knowledge especially begins. Your 
servant. 




D. JUNII JUVENALIS. 



LIB. I. SAT. V. 




TO TREBIUS. LABOURING TO BRING HIM IN DISLIKE 

OF HIS CONTINUED COURSE OF FREQUENTING 

THE TABLE OF VTRRO, A GREAT 

LORD OF ROME. 

F, of thy purpose yet, thou tak'st no shame. 
But keep'st thy mind, immutably, the 

same, 
That thou esteem'st it as a good in chief 
At others' trenchers to relieve thy life ; 
If those things thou can'st find a back to bear, 5 

That not Sarmentus nor vile Galba were 
So base to put in patience of a guest, 
No, not for Caesar's far-exceeding feast ; 
Fear will affect me to believe thy troth 
In any witness, though produc'd by oath ; 10 

For nothing in my knowledge falls that is 
More frugal than the belly. But say this, 
That not enough food all thy means can find, 
To keep thy gut from emptiness and wind, 
Is no creek void ? Xo bridge ? No piece of shed is 
Half, or not half? Would thy not being fed 
At Virro's table be so foul a shame ? 



D. JUNII JUVENALIS. 247 

Does hunger blow in thee so false a flame, 

As not to taste it nobler in as poor 

And vile a place as hath been nam'd before ? 20 

To quake for cold, and gnaw the mustiest grounds 

Of barley- griest, bak'd purposely for hounds ? 

First, take it for a ride, that if my lord 

Shall once be pleas'd to grace thee with his board, 

The whole revenues that thy hopes inherit, 25 

Rising from services of ancient merit, 

In this requital amply paid will prove. 

O 'tis the fruit of a transcendent love 

To give one victuals ; that thy table-king 

Lays in thy dish though ne'er so thin a thing, 30 

Yet that reproach still in thine ears shall ring. 

If, therefore, after two months' due neglect, 

He deigns his poor dependant to respect, 

And lest the third bench fail to fill the rank, 

He shall take thee up to supply the blank. 35 

' Let's sit together Trebius,' says my lord ; 

See all thy wishes summ'd up in a word. 

What canst thou ask at Jove's hand after this ? 

This grace to Trebius enough ample is 

To make him start from sleep before the lark, io 

Posting abroad untruss'd, and in the dark, 

Perplex'd with fear, lest all the servile -rout 

Of his saluters have the round run-out 

Before he come ; while yet the fixed star 

Shows his ambiguous head, and heaven's cold car 43 

The slow Bootes wheel about the Bear. 

And yet, for all this, what may be the cheer ? 

To such vile wine thy throat is made the sink, 

As greasy wool would not endure to drink, 



24S D. J CXI I JUVENALIS. 

And we must shortly look to see our guest 50 

Transform'd into a Berecynthian priest. 

Words make the prologue to prepare the fray, 

And in the next seene pots are taught to play 

The parts of weapons : thy red napkin now 

Descends to tell thee of thy broken brow ; ih 

And such events do evermore ensue 

When you poor guests and Virro's serving crew 

Grow to the heat of such uncivil wars. 

The vile wine made the bellows to your jars. 

For Virro's self, the wine he drinks was born eo 

When consuls (Phoebus -like) appeared unshorn : 

A grape that long since in the wars was prest 

By our confederate Marsians. and the rest ; 

Qf which no drop his longing friend can get 

Though blown in fume up with a cardiack fit. do 

Next day he likes to taste another field, 

The Alban hills \ or else the Setine yield, 

Whose race and rich succession if you ask, 

Age hath decay d, and sickness of the cask; 

Such Thrasea and Helvidius quatfd. still crown'd, n 

When Brutus' birth, and Caseins' they renown'd. 

ViiTO himself in solemn bowls is serv'd. 

Of amber and disparent beryl kerrd ; 

But to thy trust no such cup they commit. 

Or. if they do. a spy is lix'd to it. 75 

To tell th- - ; whose firm eye never fails 

To watch the close walks of thy vulturous nails. 

1 Give leave.' says Virro. and then takes the cup. 

The famous jasper in it lifting up 

In glorious praises : for 'tis now the guise so 

Of him and others to transfer such prize 



D. JUNII JUVENAL IS. 249 

Off from his fingers to his howls that were 

Wont to grace swords, and our young Trojan peer 

That made Iarhus jealous (since in love 

Preferred past him hy Dido) us'd t' improve 85 

By setting them in fore -front of his sheath. 

But thy howl stands an infinite beneath, 

And bears the Beneventane cobbler's name, 

Whose gallon drunk-off must thy blood enflame, 

And is so craz'd, that they would let it pass 90 

To them that matches give for broken glass. 

Now, if by fumes of wine, or fiery meat, 

His lordship's stomach over-boil with heat, 

There's a cold liquor brought that's made t' outvie 

The chill impressions of the north-east sky. 95 

I formerly affirru'd, that you and he 

Were serv'd with wines of a distinct degree, 

But now remember, it belongs to you 

To keep your distance in your water too. 

And (in his page's place) thy cups are brought 100 

By a swarth foot man, from Getulia bought, 

Or some sterv'd negro, whose affrightful sight 

Thou wouldst abhor to meet in dead of night 

Passing the monuments of Latia. 

In his eye waits the flower of Asia, 105 

A jewel purchas'd at a higher rate 

Than martial Ancus', or king Tullus', state, 

(Not to stand long) than all the idle things 

That grac'd the courts of all our Koman kings. 

If then thy bowl his nectar's store shall need, no 

Address thee to his Indian Ganymed. 

Think not his page, worth such a world, can skill, 

Or does not scorn, for thread-bare coats to fill, 



250 D. JUNII JUVENALIS. 

And, to say truth, his form and pride heside 

May well allow him some few grains of pride. lis 

But when does he to what thou want'st descend, 

Or thy entreaties not contemn t' attend, 

Supply of water craving, hot or cold ? 

No, he, I tell you, in high scorn doth hold 

To stir at every stale dependant's call ; 120 

Or that thou call'st for anything at all, 

Or sitt'st where he's forc'd stand, his pride depraves. 

Houses of state abound with stately slaves. 

And see; another's proud disdains resist 

His hand to set thee bread ; and yet what is't itt 

But hoary cantles of unboulted grist, 

That would a jaw-tooth rouse, and not admit, 

Though ne'er so base, thy baser throat a bit ? 

But for his bread, the pride of appetite, 

Tenderly soft, incomparably white, iso 

The first flow'r of fine meal subdu'd in paste, 

That's a peculiar for my' lord's own taste. 

See then thou keep'st thy fingers from offence, 

And give the pantler his due reverence. 

Or say thou shouldst be (malapertly) bold, 1-35 

Seest thou not slaves enough, to force thy hold 

From thy attempted prize, with taunts like these, 

6 Hands off, forward companion, will you please 

With your familiar crible to be fed, 

And understand the colour of your bread?' no 

Then grumbles thy disgrace : ' And is it this 
For which so oft I have forborne the bliss 



lJI See Batrachomyomachia, 53. 

1 u Pan tier— the servant who kept the bread, the pantry. 

133 Crible — a finer sort of bran 5 seconds' bread. 



D. J UN I I JUVENAL IS. 251 

Of my fair wife, to post with earliest speed 

Up to mount Esquiline, where agues breed ? 

When my repair did vernal Jove provoke Uo 

To drive his weather through my winter cloke, 

And in his bitter st hails his murmurs broke ? ' 

But let us to our cates our course address : 

Observe that lobster serv'd to Yirro's mess, 

How with the length of his extended limbs i r o 

He does surcharge the charger ; how the brims 

With lust-full sperage are all over-stor'd ; 

With what a tail he over-tops the board, 

In service first borne-up betwixt the hands 

Of that vast yeoman ! But, for thee, there stands 153 

A puny cray-fish, pent in half a shell, 

The dish not feast enough for one in hell. 

The fish he tastes swims in an oil that grew 

In Campany, and drank Yenafrian dew. 

But, for the worts, poor snake, presented thee, leo 

Whose pale aspect shows their infirmity, 

They drink an oil much of the curriers' stamp, 

Exquisite stuff, that savours of the lamp. 

For know, that for your board is billetted 

An oil that from the Lybian cane is shed, 165 

The burthen of a sharp Xumidian prow ; 

An oil, for whose strength Romans disavow 

To bathe with Boccharis ; an oil whose smell 

'Gainst serpents doth an amulet excell. 

Next, for my lord, a mullet see serv'd in, 17.) 

Sent from the Corsic-shore, or of a fin 
Bred in Sicilia's Taurominian rocks ; 
All our seas being exhausted, all our flocks 
160 IVcris— vegetables, cole-worts. 



252 B. J UNI I JUVENALIS. 

Spent and destroy'd, while our luxurious diet 

Makes havock, and our kitchens never quiet 175 

Still with unwearied nets, that no truce keep, 

Ransack the entrails of th' adjoining deep ; 

Nor respite our Etrurian fry to grow. 

And now our markets their chief purveyance owe 

To some remote and ditionary coast ; iso 

Thence come the dainties that our kitchens boast ; 

Such as to buy the vulture Lenas deigns, 

Such as to sell Aurelia entertains. 

In mess with that, behold for Virro lies 

A lamprey of an exemplary size, 185 

That for dimension bears the prize from all 

Which gulphs Sicilian sent his festivall ; 

For while the South contains himself, while he 

Lies close, and dries his feathers in his lee, 

Our greedy pursenets for their gain despise 190 

The danger that in mid Charybdis lies. 

Now, for his lamprey,' thou art glad to take 
An eel, near cousin to a hideous snake, 
Or else a freckled Tiberine, bit with frost, 
And he the poorest slave of all the coast, 195 

Fed with the torrent of the common sewer, 
And swims the town ditch where 'tis most impure. 
Here would I on himself a word have spent, 
So he inclin'd an ear benevolent. 

Nor do we such benevolences crave, 200 

As Seneca his mean acquaintance gave ; 
Such as good Piso ; such as Cotta made 
To deal for largess ; a familiar trade ; 
For times have been, that in the world's account 
The title of munificence did mount 205 



B. JUXII JUYEXALIS. 253 

Above triumphant or imperial b: 

But our desire in this due limit si 

That jou will make, when you entrea* 

Civil respect : 

Do this, and be, as many lords are more, 210 

Bich to yourself, and to your folio we: 
Before him see a huge goose-li 

A capon cramm'd. h that goose : for great 

A whole wild hoar, hid in his smoking he 

That gold-lock'd 1 r's dart deservM ; 215 

And after all this. Vino's self is serv'd 

With pin mushrooms, be the spring then freed. 

And wished thunders make his meals exceed. 

And then the gull -_ A 

p with thee thy wheats and 2 :•_■ 

And nding these suppl: 

And that no indignation want to thee, 

bound t' observe) the carver thou must see 
Dancing about his business : and he 
That teaches him the laws to the true life 
Of carving comely, with his flying knife 
Touching at every joint he carves, before 
He dares th' attempt, till not a gesture more 
In all his dictates can deserve offence. 
Nor must jour note fail, how huge difference 
There is 'twixt the unlacing of your hare, 
And hen's dissection. 'Gainst which if vou dare 
But whisper, like a three-nam'd noble man. 
Like Cacus, struck by hands -Herculean, 
Thou shalt be by the heels dragged forth the place. 25.5 
But when doth Yirro then vouchsafe the grace 
To drink to thee ? Or touch the cup that thou 



254 D. JUNII JUYENAL1S. 

Hast with thy lips profan'd ? Or which of you 

So desperate is, so lost, to bid the king 

'Drink to me, sir?' No. There is many a thing 240 

That thread-hare coats dare not for fear bring forth. 

But if some god, or god-like man, or worth 

Setter than fate, would wealth bestow on thee. 

Fit to maintain a knight of Rome's degree, 

How huge a piece of man shouldst thou ascend 24:. 

Rais'd out of nothing ! How much Vino's friend ! 

< Give Trebius.' ' Set to Trebius.' ' Brother (now) 

Please you these puddings' taste ? ' moneys, you 

He gives this honour, you these brother are. 

Yet notwithstanding, if thou please to share 830 

His lordship with him, or become Ins king, 

You must to court no young JEneas bring, 

Nor daughter, though his daintier, to be 

Play-peers with Virro's daintiest progeny, 

But childless be. A pleasing and dear friend 355 

A barren wife makes. But suppose she lend 

Thy lap much issue (even at one birth three) 

So thou be rich, Virro will join with thee 

In joy of that thy prating progeny ; 

And ever when the infant parasite 2*0 

Comes to the table, asking his delight, 

Virro commands it all his appetite. 

To all his cheap priz'd friends, they serve the board 

With dangerous toad-stools ; mushrooms for my lord, 

But such as Claudius pleas'd to taste, before MS 

His wife's gift came that made him taste no more. 

Virro commands for him, and all the rest 
Of the Virronian rank, fruit of such feast 
As thou shalt only in their odour eat, 



D. JUNII JUVENALIB. 255 

Such as Phseacia's endless autumns sweat, 270 

Or thou wouldst think got from the golden trees 

That grew in guard of the Atlantides ; 

Where thou eat'st spaky fruit, of that sour sort 

That fresh-train'd soldiers feed on in their fort, 

Bestow'd on them in practise of their art 275 

At a stufPd goat-skin to bestow a dart, 

Fearing for their default the scourge's smart. 

Perhaps, for saving cost, thou may'st conceive 

That Yirro feeds thee so ? No, 'tis to grieve 

Thy greedy liquorous appetite, because 2S0 

There is no comedy of more applause, 

Nor any excellentest Zany can 

More than a weeping-gut delight a man. 

All is then done (if we must teach thine ears) 

To make thee purge thy choler by thy tears, 2S5 

And live still gnashing of thy great-eye-teeth. 

Thou think'st, he thinks thee free, and not beneath 

Guests for his love and grace ; but he knows well 

Thee only taken with his kitchen's smell. 

Nor thinks amiss ; for who so naked lives, 290 

That twice on his entreats attendance gives ? 

Vain hope of supping well deceives you all. 

' But see' (say you) ' that half-eat hare will fall 

In his gift to our shares ; or of that boar 

Some little fragments, that his haunches wore ; 295 

Or sure that cap'net.' When, for all prepar'd, 

Your musty bread par'd clean, and no bit shar'd 

Of all those meats of mark, and long'd-for dishes, 

Your vain hopes vanish, and y' are mute as fishes. 

273 Spaky— specky, rotten. 

296 Cap'net — caponet, little capon. 



256 D. JUNII JUVENALIS. 

He's wise that serves thee so ; for if thou can M o 

Bear all, thou should'st. and he's no unjust man 

That lavs all on thee, even to stoop thy head 

To the fool's razor, and be buffeted ; 

Which if thou do'st, nor let'st thy forage fear 

Besides to suffer Yirro's whipping cheer, 365 

With all the sharp sauce that he can extend, 

Thou'rt worthy such a feast, and such a friend. 



FINIS. 



CUIhWJCK PRESS : — PRINTED BY C WH1TT1XGHAM, 

TOOKS COURT. CHANCER F LANE. 



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